EVA: Gods Made From Men
by Wild Card-You and What Army
Summary: The ancient elite have grown angry at their place in the Universe. They plan to make themselves Gods with the most microscopic of weapons...unless an unlucky few ascend to Deus Ex first. Epilogue: 2028
1. Lucky Man

Disclaimer: Evangelion is property of Gainax/Studio Khara; If I owned it, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction. I don't own Deus Ex, either.  
This is the sequel to 'Make Yourself a Legend'. I highly recommend you finish that story to understand some of the points you'll see here.

* * *

**EVA: Gods Made From Men  
**

Chapter 1: Lucky Man

* * *

Early Summer, 2015. In an apartment belonging to Misato Katsuragi on the shielded dome city of Tokyo-3...

* * *

_He had white horses and ladies by the score, all dressed in satin and waiting by the door._  
_Ooh, what a lucky man he was. Ooh, what a lucky man he was..._

* * *

He had long given up on the waterlogged SDAT tape player he owned of his late father, and was now listening to old rock songs in English on his new Galaxy Gear 3 computer watch. That UN paycheck he received was finally worth it; seeing as how he wasn't fighting for his life anymore, he no longer felt like a piece of disposable equipment. Now, his commanding officer ordered him to pursue a more academic target: Colonel Katsuragi had ordered him to start learning fluent spoken and written English, as Japan's branch of the NERV Special Agency had reached astronomical levels of fame and influence after the dispersal of documentation proving the Japanese Military's betrayal and surprise attack on their former ally, and now the leadership and primary personnel of NERV-Japan were international icons- able to issue demands straight to the United Nations -in addition to the successful defenders of humankind's right to survive. With their new power came a new need to communicate, and as such, he found himself reading, writing, and speaking the UN's version of international English almost exclusively.

His immediate superior, a skilled but unorthodox young English woman, had sugested he use language tools on the Internet to study, and gave him a treasure trove of British culture to immerse himself in: A television series starring a time travelling English Doctor, an English comedy troupe's series' and films; particularly one film mocking and skewering the legend of King Arthur, a series of books and films centred around an English MI6 Agent that reminded him of Colonel Katsuragi's fiancée, the legendary Sherlock Holmes treasury, and albums from famous English musicians. She had given him excellent music, from sources such as the loud and hard Led Zepplin and Eric Clapton, the deeply philosophical Pink Floyd, and the eclectic Emerson, Lake and Palmer; whose lyrics he and his lovely, constant companion were now contemplating.

* * *

_White lace and feathers, they made up his bed; a gold covered mattress on which he was laid._  
_Ooh, what a lucky man he was. Ooh, what a lucky man he was..._

* * *

"Does 'luck' come with the possessions of royalty, Shinji? This song appears to describe a medieval lord or king." She asked from her position, curled up against his side. They were sharing a pair of earbuds and were both exhausted, him from another long day of drills and tests from his war machine, the building-sized Evangelion Unit-01, and her from a day of physical therapy and exercise, and college preparatory studying.

To be fair, their life had been relatively...normal in the months following the Japanese Special Defense Force's failed sneak attack on their lives. First Lieutenant Shinji Ikari, 15 years old, remained one of the two Evangelion Pilots in Japan, tasked with defending the country from extraterrestrial or supernatural threats, neither of which had appeared since the 'death' of the Second Angel, one of a progenitor race of beings that attempted to absorb all life on Earth. His time was spent between staying on reserve alert and learning the UN's administrative language, while -retired- First Lieutenant Rei Ayanami, also (sort of) 15 years old, prepared to enter her first year at Tokyo-3's premier research university; she was genuinely brilliant for her age, evidenced by her acceptance and scholarship. The first day of school was still a month and a half away, but she needed all of that time to recover from the extensive injuries she endured during the campaign against the Angels. Now, she was spending her days either performing physical therapy exercises, swimming (to Shinji's delight _and_ embarrassment, as he still couldn't swim as excellently as she can, but he never argued with watching her glide through the water in a swimsuit), or studying early for her entry into the medical school at Tokyo University. She had spent the entirety of her childhood in hospitals and laboratories, and though she was conditioned never to complain or feel concern for her status, she hated it. Now, with the conclusion of her military career, she'd decided she would put her considerable intellect to work improving children's hospital stays after recieving a pediatric medical doctorate.

"I think it's saying that he's lucky because he's successful, Rei, not the other way around. I know for sure that I never felt lucky until _after_ all the crap we've been through ended..." He shifted on the couch they were cuddling on, awkwardly trying to get more comfortable against the girl molded into his side.

* * *

_He went to fight wars for his country and his king. Of his honor and his glory, the people would sing._  
_Ooh, what a lucky man he was. Ooh, what a lucky man he was..._

* * *

"You know...I'm glad most people don't know it was us in the Evas. I couldn't handle the constant attention. Honor and Glory, nothing."

"Don't you take pride in your accomplishments, Shinji?"

"Sure I do, but I don't brag about them. Now, I might brag about _you_..." He started tickling her around her waist and navel, hearing the soft laughter that reduced his brain to mush. "I'm happy things are better, Rei."

Her breathing slowed and she melted into his warmth. "I am too, Shinji. I once felt that death, for me, would be relief; your father's plan would offer me the comfort and release from the pain I'd been conditioned to accept. Now that I have so much to live for, I plan leave the world a better place than I entered it."

"You wanted to die that badly, back then?"

"When you know that you were born to be a doomsday weapon, you can have very skewed priorities. But that part of me is gone, now. I can feel my strength returning more and more each day. Waking up to your kiss each morning is what I really look forward to." He humoured her.

* * *

_A bullet had found him, his blood ran as he cried, no money could save him, so he laid down and he died._  
_Ooh, what a lucky man he was. Ooh, what a lucky man he was..._

* * *

"Maybe our story won't have a tragic ending like his did..." Shinji thought out loud as the music ended. He looked down to see that Rei had already fallen asleep. He looked out at the starry sky through their window. = But I should know not to tempt fate like that... =

* * *

Inside a darkened room...

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "If Instrumentality is impossible due to the destruction of our target, then the contingency must be enacted."

SEELE-03 SOUND ONLY: "The Singularity, really? That's your solution? It will take decades before the majority of the world's population is integrated."

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "And? Is it not necessary to prepare decades ahead of our goals?"

SEELE-03 SOUND ONLY: "Yes, but neither biointerface has moved beyond the prototype stage-"

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "Incorrect. The mechanical biochip is being readied for distribution by Tai-Yong as we speak. Only the nanite biochip is still on the drawing board."

SEELE-03 SOUND ONLY: "And? The mechanical chips have a 100% rejection rate from living hosts. The volume of Neuropazine the subjects must consume to prevent rejection provokes mental degradation within months; your test subjects are dying from degenerative brain conditions in their twenties! If we allow your 'solution', the entire world will die from Alzheimer's and we'll have nothing to lead! What good is our dominion over the world if there's nobody to serve us? Only the nanite solution is capable of integrating without killing the human being it is modifying."

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "If your tirade is finished, you'll know that Sarif Industries in the United States has working prototypes for both a mechanical and nanite biochip; of course they'll be trying their damndest to prevent that information from slipping. We need to only 'encourage' them to accelerate their production and we'll have the holy grail of technology: Augmented, constantly infolinked human beings that don't suffer the rejection issues or massive disfiguration that mechanical prosthetics bring."

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "Perhaps Tai-Yong should simply acquire Sarif..."

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "Next to impossible; David Sarif is as shrewd and independent as Zhao Yun Ru herself, he won't be overcome unless the other company runs itself out of business in the process."

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "Nevertheless, the information age is our replacement for the biologic rebirth of humanity, and our control of human enhancement is what will allow us to rule the post-human race. That said, our next order of business is to finish the little thorns at NERV. Nagisa, Ikari's bastard offspring and that apparently immortal little girl all need to die."

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "We know that the Third and Fifth travel to and from the GeoFront every day. How humiliating it would be for NERV to watch as its most important assets fall before their very eyes. Let me handle their elimination, it will let me prove the power we really have over them."

* * *

A/N: I bet none of you would _ever_ expect somebody to convincingly crossover Deus Ex and Eva, would you? Mwhahahaha


	2. It's Only Business

Answers:  
Vent: I pmmed you, I hope I cleared some things up...  
Kaze: I am basing it mostly on Human Revolution, good observation.  
ShirayukiFan: If you 'haven't seen Deus Ex' you need to go download it from GOG right now, seriously it's like 2 dollars during the sales...

* * *

Chapter 2: It's Only Business

* * *

Rei opened her eyes and looked over to a clock on the wall. = 6:45 AM? What in the world is he doing at this hour? = She blinked the sleepyness away from her eyes as she listened to the sound of a bow drawn across strings coming from Shinji's room. She made the trip across the hallway to find him awake and playing.

She leaned against his doorway and raised an eyebrow. "I suppose I'm not allowed the comfort of a warm, quiet place to sleep, anymore?"

She startled him and he raked the bow across with an off-key racket following it. "Rei! You're awake?"

"Thanks to you, yes."

"I'm sorry, I just woke up really early and couldn't get back to sleep, so-"

An opportunity presented itself: "Well, the next time you want to wake me up with your cello, at least serenade me in my room with breakfast in bed waiting for me." She then saw his worried expression, this wasn't a time where teasing would help. "If you're having trouble sleeping, is something bothering you?"

"I don't know...All I have to worry about is the next round of sync tests. I guess I'm just conditioned to constantly expect bad things to happen..."

"I don't have a checkup today. I was just going to read and go to the pool later...Think you'd feel better if I were watching your test from the control room?"

"You don't have to do that, Misato and Mari will be there, so-"

"I'm doing it because I support you, too, Shinji. I may not be beside you in Unit-00 anymore, but I can always talk to you over the radio."

"Thanks, Rei, I would feel bette-"

"WHAT IN NERV WAS THAT HELLISH NOISE?"

"I believe Misato is awake with a hangover, Shinji." Rei observed about their irresponsible guardian.

* * *

It had been quite a while since Rei had walked through the security gates into NERV's upper city entrance. Being the independent girl she always has been, she saw Shinji off to work every morning and went about her own tasks, involving rigorous studying, spending quite a bit of time at their old school's swimming complex, or undergoing frequent physical exams regarding her recovery.

Today, however, she found herself riding the secure train down from the upper city to the newly-reforested GeoFront. After the Fourteenth and Second Angels caused such massive damage to their facilities, both in their attacks and in the explosions that mark an Angel's destruction, the sprawling underground fortress had undergone an extensive UN-funded upgrade which included rebuilding the pyramid wall that had been knocked out by the Fourteenth and excavating and filling the massive surface tear and crater made by the Second when it tore from the ground as it rose from deep below the GeoFront's ground level. The pristine forest that once surrounded the near-impenetrable base had been torn and strewn about, trees uprooted and fields reduced to mud. Some of the real estate, however, had been zoned and mapped with new grasses planted in fields and saplings planted in the barest areas. The UN's budget was well on its way to bringing NERV's home territory back to its original appearance, but Rei saw the volume of work that still needed to be done.

"Shinji," She spoke up from the otherwise quiet subway car. "All of this destruction...it's my doing..."

He held her hand and laced his fingers through her own. "That's not true and you know it, Rei. Most of the damage came from the Fourteenth-"

"And my attack against it."

"So you used a really big bomb against it, so what? The forest is being replanted and NERV's pyramid is getting rebuilt...Neither the Fourteenth or Lillith succeed in killing people like the Second Impact did. If you feel bad about all this, remember it's being taken care of on the UN's credit card."

"I still willingly caused the-"

"And Kaworu and I stopped it and we don't give a damn if you're the person who started it. We're going to walk into NERV and you're going to get a standing ovation when everybody sees you." Shinji looked her in her eyes with intense focus as they neared the GeoFront station.

* * *

Shinji met Kaworu in their locker room as they got dressed; his plugsuit had long lost the purple hues that matched Unit-01's purple-dominant armor. So many months of immersion in liquid and vaporized LCL and time in NERV's laundry facilities had worn the dye away from the fabric, now it was dull and grayed, as well worn as the pilot that owned it.

"Routine and Normalcy, Shinji. It really is the most valuable prize one could earn. All of the trials and hardship you've endured, it all pays off when we simply go to work in the morning and return to our homes at night to prepare for another normal, routine day. Peace is a funny thing, isn't it?"

"It may be funny, but now the only thing that really separates me from any other guy my age is that I go climb into a giant robot everyday after school...You've never met Touji or Kensuke, but even those two wierdos have more regular lives than I do."

"Yes, the Fourth Child and the son of Colonel Aida, the JASDF's Liaison to NERV at Matsushiro Air Base. Has the Fourth recovered properly?"

"He still walks with a limp, but he can run at his best speed again."

* * *

"Rei, what a pleasant surprise." Ritsuko said as she saw the girl walk into the control room with Misato.

Misato wouldn't let an opportunity to be immature go to waste. "Yep, she's here to give her squeeze toy some moral support! Hey, maybe we could find you a cheerleader's outfit, Rei!"

"Why not just give her the one you wear in bed with Kaji, Misato? I know that's one of _his_ kinks."

"What the hell are you implying?!" Misato's face was fire-red, either from embarrassment or the fact that she can't win an argument with Ritsuko.

"That you're less mature than the 15 year old girl beside you. Rei, don't listen to her."

"No need to reassure me, Doctor. I'm quite used to Colonel Katsuragi's inability to grow up, and I know that Shinji would rather see me in my plugsuit than some tasteless high-school costume."

Ritsuko laughed. Misato stood in shock. Let it be a lesson to all; never tease somebody with a greater intellect than you, if they open up the deep inner workings of their mind for all to see, the result can be terrifying.

"Dr. Akagi, is Lieutenant Ibuki absent?" Rei noticed the lack of the friendly technician.

Ritsuko's light expression turned somber. "Rei...When you merged with Lillith, her flesh ghosted through Maya's station. The act of an alien god literally moving through her body sent her into a mental breakdown...She's in psychiatric therapy, right now. She'll recover, but she was diagnosed with paranoia and psychosis after the incident. She's listed as an injured casualty of the JSDF attack, but..."

Rei looked stunned, and then an expression of guilt emerged from her face. "I...I did those things to her, I...what I did was worse than killing her...I destroyed her coherent mind...I-"

"She was collateral damage, Rei. Avoidable collateral, yes, but it was still an accident. She may be 'worse than dead' right now, but it won't last. She's getting treatment, just the same as all the personnel who saw hundreds of dead bodies explode into orange slime."

"That was my doing, as well." Rei turned to Misato. "I became worse than the Angels, I know I did. They only sought to return to their creator...I selfishly destroyed _everything_ in order to take Shinji for my own-"

"So? It's over now, the official reports have all the blame on the JSDF. What you did, what Gendo did, and- unfortunately -what SEELE did _never_ happened."

Rei let the implications of her guilt overcome her. "I deserve to be prosecuted for-"

"For what?" Misato smirked. "Officer, I'm turning myself in for turning into an alien god then absorbing everyone on earth and turning them into orange soda...On second thought, they probably would take you in for that, but you'd be going to the happy house rather than jail.

Rei, the point I'm making is that _none of us care._ Your job is to become the best person you can possibly be _in the present_. Worry less about the future and don't worry about the past at all...In fact, I'm hereby ordering you to let go of the past; I am your former commanding officer, after all."

"...Yes ma'am...Excuse me, where is Captain Illustrious? She _is_ the current Operations Director, isn't she?"

"She's at Matsushiro getting checked out in a VTOL. She's been in flight training for the last two months...You really should come here with Shinji more often."

"I don't want to get in the way..."

"You couldn't possibly."

Ritsuko took over the conversation. "Shinji, your sync has been slipping lately. You've got to keep your focus."

His voice entered the control room. "Sorry, Ritsuko, but I'm just getting bored...Let's face it, we're NERV. We fought- and beat -the Japanese Army and Air Force...there's nobody on Earth brave enough or stupid enough to take us on."

"In a frontal attack," She answered. "you'd be correct. But there are enemies in the world that don't do frontal assaults. They fight from the shadows, hiding behind ghosts and proxy soldiers; they're the people that you have to be constantly preparing and training to confront. The soldier carrying a heavy rifle and wearing dozens of pounds of armor can be seen from miles away. The criminal or agent wearing slacks and a coat and carrying a pistol will murder you in cold blood on the streets. In a time of peace such as this, you must shift your focus from military threats to criminal and insurgent ones."

"So you want us to shift from focusing on monster attacks to being police?"

"Essentially, yes. The UN's need for NERV has changed, and we will carry out our new purposes with enthusiasm. We're no longer Earth's defense against the Angels, we're the Earth's defense against _unknown_ extraterrestrials- or -factions that seek to destabilize sovereign governments. For instance, over in the US, Nevada to be specific, Page Industries; the people who made the special medication that Rei used to need, has given NERV a generous grant to Rebuild branch 2, on the condition that their Versalife company be allowed to use a section of the base for medical research. It's a great partnership: The US gets counter-terrorism support from NERV once again, and Versalife develops medications that will save lives...Oh! Looks like today's session is done, boys. Shinji, that little talk must have motivated you, because you jumped back up by 7 percent. You can come out...Kaworu, you have a physical today, so report to medical after you get a shower."

"Of course, Doctor." He complied. "I also need to congratulate Mari for reaching this milestone in her new career..."

"Mari's easy to shop for, Kaworu." Shinji joked over the radio. "Just get her a bottle of LCL and she'll love you forever."

Kaworu raised an eyebrow while still in the test plug. "Shinji, I know I should be mad at you for that, but that really is something Mari would like..."

* * *

Ryouji Kaji was watching from a van parked on a taxiway at Matsushiro as Captain Mari Illustrious, former Evangelion Pilot and Interim Operations Director for NERV-Japan, gently touched a NERV VTOL aircraft down on the tarmac. She'd spent the last two months intensely training in fixed-wing and tilt-engine airplanes and had just completed her final stage to qualifications: a five hour, cross-country checkride with her at the primary controls for the craft, the instructor acting as a glorified passenger, occasionally taking notes or raising an eyebrow at an action she'd take. Even with the powerful lifting engines, the day had been turbulent, with low pressure air and cumulus clouds everywhere, the perfect conditions for thunderstorms- which thankfully hadn't formed yet, or else Mari would have had a nightmare at the controls -and lousy conditions for flying.

She followed the shutdown checklist and the instructor and student exited the bird. Kaji walked up and asked for the informal opinion from the instructor.

"How'd she do?"

"Well, a messy passing grade is still a passing grade, but she needs polish. Get her up in the air as often as you can, she needs to develop feeling for the conditions and muscle memory for the controls. She uses too much strength and tends to jerk the stick around, but she met the standards. After the results are made official, she'll be a registered pilot for NERV's Air Transport."

Mari was all smiles and darted towards Kaji, tackling him in a hug. "So I don't have my own Eva, anymore, but I'm STILL a pilot!"

* * *

Kaworu was waiting in the examination room when a young gentleman wearing a labcoat entered the room.

"Afternoon, uh, Second Lieutenant Nagisa." The doctor read from his clipboard, a slight Austrian accent to his voice.

"Likewise, I believe we haven't met, Doctor."

"I'm new. NERV had to hire a replacement medical staff after the JSDF criminals murdered our previous hospital regulars."

"Yes. NERV's darkest hour." He sat on the bed and removed his shirt, revealing his post-Adam muscles. The doctor went through the usual checkup, he felt heartbeat and breathing, tapped Kaworu's knees and elbows, and inspected his eyes with that infuriating bright light.

"And now you have an injection, as much fun as they are. Hold your arm for me..." The doctor inserted the syringe into Kaworu's arm...

...Kaworu fell to the floor, choking and coughing bits of blood and LCL. "What...did you...give me? Some form...of toxin?"

"Sarin, actually. Liquid over the gaseous variant. Much more potent; my employers require your elimination swiftly and quietly."

Kaworu groaned on the floor. "I'm impressed...How did you...make it into NERV?"

"I do have a medical degree." The 'doctor' smirked down at him. "But my employers pay more than you do."

"If you do...have a 'medical degree'...Whatever happened to...'Do no harm'?" Kaworu coughed more blood.

"It doesn't pay my bills. I had to fly out to Japan to get this job, after all...You really should be dead by now, Nagisa."

"You forgot...unlike Rei...I _did not_ give up my inhuman heritage." Kaworu's eyes suddenly glowed red. "My human half is suffering greatly...the god in me is angry." Kawrou groaned as he forced himself to his feet. He leaned into the examination bed as the uninformed assassin drew a silenced pistol and fired several times into the now-visible orange hexagon in front of Kawrou's body. Kawrou forced the small AT Field into the assassin, knocking him back against the wall.

He fell to the floor, dazed. Kawrou dropped to his knees and coughed up more blood before crawling to the man and grabbing him around his throat. "Get me in contact with SEELE. My restraint and desire to see SEELE fall are the only things keeping you alive, so tell the truth."

The man groaned, the back of his head was throbbing. "...I don't know what 'SEELE' is..." He cringed, the pain from the wall he was thrown against was nearly unbearable.

"Then who sent you?!"

"Fine. The Dragon Lady sent me."

"Who is she?" Kaworu spat blood away from his mouth.

"Belltower. China. She organizes us all around the world. All I know is that she's Chinese and she hires her people under Belltower as bodyguards." * BANG * Kawrou shielded his eyes as the man encircled his lips around his handgun.

* * *

Mari and Kaji settled their VTOL onto the landing pad outside NERV's pyramid. Kaji commented on her first 'Legal' flight. "Mari, the return trip was much nicer than I expected. Maybe it's because the winds died down, but I don't feel any apprehension about riding in the passenger seat while you're flying."

"Well then, we'll have to celebrate, somehow-" She froze, mid sentence when she saw Misato running towards them, full tilt. "Hey, Boss, where's the fire!?"

"Under Kawrou! He's been poisoned by some kind of mercenary! Get plugged and get into Unit-06, NOW! Shinji and Rei are in danger!" Misato was yelling, panting, and burning with anger; all at the same time.

"Kawrou! We have to-"

"Ritsuko's overseeing his detoxification. You need to get ready to launch. We're sending out a motorcade from Section 2 to retrieve them, but you need to escort the cars!"

"Done!" She took off running towards the pyramid's ground entrance.

* * *

"I'm glad you were able to regain focus at the end of the test, Shinji." Rei sadly smiled to him as she moved across from him on the subway monorail back up to the surface, Shinji was confused.

"Rei, what's wrong?" He walked over to sit beside her, she smacked his hand away when he tried to hug her. "Rei...tell me."

"Those films we saw where the horror movie hero is actually the villain? I am the villain of our story." She lowered her eyes. "In addition to willingly attempting to destroy the world, I sent dozens of NERV staff into psychiatric care after they witnessed the breakdown of the casualties of that day...When the dead exploded into LCL, the living watched...dozens of people went mad from the sight-"

"Rei," Shinji stated, still trying to hold her. "The LCL thing is over. The people that watched might be messed up, but they're _still alive_. The people who exploded were shot by a bunch of criminals who did worse things than you ever will. _THEY SHOT UP OUR HOSPITAL._ I can't stress this enough, the JSDF guys that attacked us deserved to turn into LCL...I hope the ones that survived enjoy being waterboarded."

"Just because there are worse people than me, doesn't mean I'm good."

"Rei, what brought this on?"

Her eyes watered, the affectionate warmth that Shinji felt whenever she was near him froze over. "Dr. Akagi told me that I drove Lieutenant Ibuki...insane. When...I...rose from Terminal Dogma, the flesh of Lillith passed through Maya's body...the sheer absurdity of it all destroyed Maya's mind..._I'm responsible for her madness; _I'm responsible for the madness of all those that witnessed the breakdown of the dead into LCL_._"

He forced her hands away from his wrist, moving to hold her waist and shoulders. "Rei, I caused the Third Impact. I was probably gonna get shot for it, but the trial my dad put together against me was derailed when _you_ told me how to use the dummy plug computer and when _I _threatened Ritsuko at gunpoint. She blew up the dummy plug plant; it was the first piece of evidence that my father's plan was failing, and it couldn't have happened unless _I_ went on a berserk, world ending crusade to save you when that bitch Angel made you self-destruct Unit-00. I didn't mean to start an Impact, but _I_ was the villain on that day because I was willing to do _anything_ to save you...Just like my dad was willing to do _anything_ to save my mom. The difference between me and him is that he had every intention to end the world to do it. _You_ did those things because you thought you were doomed to destroy the world, and you thought saving me would be the only comfort you could find from it...None of us were the good guys, back then, Rei, but I'm not going to sacrifice myself at the altar of 'Perfect' when I can live in the world of 'Good'. We had to do the best we could with what we had and what we knew...Look at how things turned out. The people who attacked us lost, the people who got hurt are getting medical care, the people that you blame yourself for are getting psych treatment...Maya can get better, I know she can. There are a million different ways that all end much, much worse than what we have, and you know it." He looked up to her and wiped a tear from her cheek. "And stop crying, a face as beautiful as yours should be smiling."

Shinji's idea of Heaven was being snuggled up against Rei. More than anything else, he wanted to be with the girl that gave him the courage to fight in the world he used to fear without reason. That Heaven burned down and devolved into Hell when time appeared to slow down in his mind and he watched as the two walls of the monorail train erupt into balls of metal shards and fire. His trained reflexes pulled himself and Rei down onto their knees in the floor of the train, faces and chests pressed against each other. They didn't have time to scream when they felt hundreds of pieces of burning metal enter their backs, shoulders, arms and thighs.

The train derailed and skidded to a halt a short distance away from the tracks that had just been hit with a cluster of shoulder-launched rockets fired my men in trucks, who didn't know that they were currently being targeted by a formerly-happy, now very deranged 17 year old girl in a cyborg clone of an alien god; she just suffered the news of her dream guy's attempted murder and now witnessed the attack on her two friends' completely nonthreatening subway train! Unit-06 tore from its launch rails and tracked the rockets' smoke trails back to their sources, seeing two men per truck, wearing silver-gray body armor with the image of a bull on their helmets. Unit-06 drew two rifles from a munition tower and unleashed NERV's own brand of Hell, the 120 milimeter rounds firing at 20 rounds per second, pounding three of the trucks into craters so eviscerated that it became impossible to determine dirt from human or truck remains.

She grabbed the fourth truck, mercenaries still inside, and sprinted her Eva Unit back to her launch elevator, gleefully imagining all the wonderful ways she'd violate the Geneva Conventions when she got back to home base.

The last thing Shinji remembered before he blacked out was the feeling of being pulled away from what he loved most by men in black overcoats...

* * *

A/N: Dark...Tense...


	3. Modern Medicine

Answers:  
Kaze: That gets answered right here.  
ShirayukiFan: You're always free to read, but if you aren't familiar with the source material it can get confusing really fast...

* * *

Chapter 3: Modern Medicine

* * *

Her captives spoke English, Misato's multiple fluent languages were handy at times like this. "Kill us. We will tell you nothing. We'll save you time: We are countertorture personnel-" * SLAP * Misato answered the captured mercenary with friendship and tact.

"It's perfectly fine if you tell us nothing; we know plenty. Your armor: 'Belltower'. We did our research; corporate hitmen paid to protect technology secrets. You guys have been working for research companies since 1947. You've got strong ties to SEELE's corporate interests in the US and Europe...You failed to kill SEELE's targets, and I'm about to have a _hell_ of a time with you two. We learned this one from the Vietnamese: Your accommodations are a 2X2 meter barbed wire cage. You're lucky we don't slather it in shit like the Vietnamese do. We'll talk more tomorrow. Kaji?" She looked over to her smirking fiancée.

The rugged agent walked up and tazed the two bound assassins, stripped them, and stuffed them into the tiger cage.

* * *

"GET THEM INTO INTENSIVE CARE! BRING THE BLOOD DEPOSITS FOR IKARI AND AYANAMI, STAT!" Ritsuko shouted into her handheld radio as she ran to meet the Section 2 escorts when they drove up to the pyramid's entrance. Two of their SUVs were crudely repurposed into ambulances, with tarps laid out over the back seats, the hundreds of subdermal shrapnel wounds each in Shinji and Rei spilling potentially fatal levels of blood across the backs of the cars.

Two nursing crews rushed gurneys out to the cars, where the two teenagers were laid face-first onto the beds. The nurses wheeled them into the pyramid and were met by more crews with intravenous carts carrying blood bags matching Shinji and Rei's blood types. They were injected with the IV connectors and began receiving the transfused blood as they continued to suffer from shrapnel injuries. Ritsuko reached their bedsides and injected them both with morphine, and the nurses continued their long, still painful, ride toward the intensive care wing.

"Ritsuko! What's the story on both of them?!" Misato's alarmed voice broke through her radio.

"Colonel Katsuragi...There's-there's blood and metal everywhere...they're alive, barely; we're rolling them towards treatment as we speak. We've got them under painkillers and they're receiving blood, but...I don't know how to handle this...they'll be in surgery for days getting all the shrapnel removed, _if_ we can keep surgeons working on them 24/7, and there's no way to ensure that 100% of the shards get removed...I- I don't know what to do...We're going to have to wait...I'll keep their pain suppressed and we'll curb the bleeding, but the trash has to come out of their bodies..."

"RITSUKO, I NEED MORE THAN THAT-"

"Colonel Katsuragi, that is enough." Professor Fuyutsuki's voice entered the conversation. "They were riding a civil train system on the surface of the upper city when they were attacked. There's nothing NERV could've done to pre-emptively eliminate this new threat as it was an unprovoked attack from a third party, using what amounts to hitmen who've been hired not to ask questions. We will provide them with NERV's full medical care and we'll retaliate against those who attacked us, but berating Dr. Akagi when she's at the limit of her expertise will do nothing to heal Shinji or Rei, and it won't help Ritsuko's position any."

Misato forced herself to remain calm. "You're right, Commander. However, I can't stand sitting on my ass and waiting while two innocent kids are suffering for our idiocy!"

"The only way this attack could've been prevented is to install armored and weaponized subway trains on the monorail system, and you _will not_ be doing that, Colonel." He noticed the spark of inspiration in Misato's voice.

"Why not?"

"Just. No."

* * *

Berlin, Germany. Early Summer 2015.

_THERE'S NO ONE LIKE YOU; I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NIGHTS WITH YOU; I IMAGINE THE THINGS WE'D DO-_

"Hello...Daddy?" Asuka answered her cell phone from the poolside she was sunning herself on. "No, just getting a tan...Yes, I'm glad to be home...I didn't mean to be so bad to stepmom back then, I just didn't want anybody replacing mom. I understand now, and I love both of them...Family trip? Okay...No, Japan is too far...It's not that I don't miss my friends or that I don't want you to meet them, we'd just be traveling across the planet to meet a girl's classmates. Seems kind of over the top, doesn't it?...I occasionally try to call the First and Third, but the time difference is 11 hours, so-GOD, AAAAAHH!"

She dropped her cell phone when the flechette speared through her left shoulder and exited her right obliques, cutting a clean path through her body and puncturing the concrete under her pool chair. The sniper on the apartment building a kilometer away was kind of disappointed he had to shoot this particular mark, she looked downright hot in her red and white-striped bikini, and he enjoyed watching her stretch and contort herself through the scope.

He did make a mistake with his ammunition. Fin-stabilized sabot rounds are pinpoint accurate and work wonders against car engines and generators, but they tend to cut a clean hole through human targets, so Asuka's gunshot wound was extensive, but if it was repaired quickly, she wouldn't bleed to death. She writhed in pain as a team of Section 2 bodyguards from NERV branch 3 swarmed and evacuated her and began scanning for the active shooter, finding nothing in the nearby vicinity. They transported her to Humboldt University's Charite Hospital in their armored SUV, parked near the Soryu family's apartment complex; radioing the hospital dispatch and ordering the emergency room staff to give priority care to the girl when they arrived.

* * *

"Okay, Ritsuko." Misato, Kaji, and the Professor were looking through the window into Shinji and Rei's room as Ritsuko and a nursing staff changed the bleeding teens' blood bags; Mari was somewhere helping Kaworu balance over a drain trough as he repeatedly vomited. "This isn't a solution. We can't just leave these two in here hooked up to blood drips."

"I know that, Misato. We have to worry about the shrapnel...I need every surgery-qualified doctor on this base working non-stop if were going to get the metal out...metal..." A light ignited inside of Ritsuko's head. "The Artificial Evolution Laboratory has research partnerships with biomedical firms around the world...Human doctors need to work in shifts, but an automated system...Professor, with your permission, I'd like to bring in some outside help."

"Dr. Akagi, you are free to treat their injuries however you see fit."

"Then I'll need clearance to release classified documents to Sarif Industries in Detroit, Michigan...The AEL's working relationship with Sarif is still very good, they purchase developments from us on a near-monthly basis. Their recent developments with nanite medical bots would benefit us tremendously."

* * *

The two Belltower operatives that survived Unit-06's assault managed to get into a position in the tiger cage where the barbed wire wasn't cutting and tearing their skin. That small comfort didn't help them when Misato walked in, Kaji following her wearing leather gloves and carrying a small metal crate.

"Tell me, do you boys know what autoignition is?" She asked, with a devilish grin on her face.

One of the failed assassins answered her from his position, contorted around the barbs. "A reactive material is capable of lighting itself aflame when it's exposed to open air."

"Very good, you paid attention in science class, now didn't you? Kaji is about to demonstrate an example of autoignition. Boys, let me introduce you to Mr. Willie Pete."

Kaji opened the box and dumped the pulverized White Phosphorus across the two torture victims. The isolated room they were kept in ensured that nobody save the two people performing the inhumane execution could hear their screams.

* * *

Three days after the rocket attack.

"BE-E 001, 008 here, formation is descending towards Toyko-3 Center City, but where's this Pyramid thing we're looking for?"

"8, Look for a Red Cross on some of the intersections and broadcast a handshake message on 141.15. Reports say the ground opens up and we fly into the hole."

"...Right. You said it, not me...Holy Shit, it's happening!"

The eight Boeing BEE civilian VTOLs hovered down into the GeoFront, the pilots and passengers staring in awe at the glistening steel and glass pyramid. David Sarif's tower in Detroit was impressive, but was rather generic as skyscrapers go. This however, was incredible. Unlike the stone pyramids at Giza, this facility shone with a mirror finish, a frustrating source of light glare for pilots and aircrews.

They landed on the helipads just outside the entrance to find an old gentleman; a young, rugged man with a ponytail, and two relatively young women waiting to meet them. The blonde, labcoated woman approached first, walking to the VTOL identified as '008', just at two gentlemen emerged from it. The first, a confident businessman, distinctive in his waistcoat embroidered with complex geometric figures, and the other, a gray-haired British fellow wearing an elaborate trenchcoat. Both men were equipped with mechanical prosthetics, the British man walking in an exoskeleton around his legs and using a decorated cane, while the businessman's right hand was replaced with a carbon-black robotic arm.

"Dr. Darrow, Mr. Sarif." Ritsuko greeted them. "You both have NERV's undying gratitude for traveling all the way-"

"Don't waste those kids' lives introducing us, Dr. Akagi." David answered her. "Your message told us that these kids are suffering from hundreds of shrapnel wounds. If that's right, then they'll be bleeding their hearts out as we speak." He and the Doctors began the walk into NERV's pyramid.

"The good news" She answered them. "is that we've slowed the bleeding but kept the wounds open so skin and flesh wouldn't grow over the embedded metal. The bad news is that it'll take a human crew hundreds of man-hours to safely remove the shrapnel."

David pressed a button on his arm, opening a radio communicator on his wrist and ordered the flight crews to unload their equipment and escort Darrow's medical staff inside with them. He turned to Ritsuko, "That's where we come in. The autodocs and the injections should remove the shrapnel. We can't actually tell you _how_ until the surgery starts. That's where Hugh comes in." His voice let his Japanese hosts know that he was definitely a Midwestern American.

"Yes." Dr. Darrow answered, his posh English accent noticeable to those around him. "Our solution is mine and Sarif's latest development; technically, it hasn't left the Beta stage yet, but the two prototype controllers are ready for insertion. To be honest, our decision to assist you all the way out here was entirely self-serving: You have two injured but otherwise healthy adolescents and we need one male and one female test subject. If our work ends up saving their lives, then this result will be entirely positive; and we do still owe NERV and the Artificial Evolution Laboratory gratitude. Your work with synthetic flesh and organ growth enabled Sarif to build our First-Generation prosthetic augmentations."

"You _never_ heard me say this," Ritsuko answered. "But you two are actually about to meet the ultimate result of the AEL's synthetic organ experiments, and she's a wonderful girl. That said, her origins are still Top-Secret, so after you read the reports, deny everything to anybody who approaches you. As for the poor girl herself, she doesn't really like being reminded that she's synthetic, so please be gentle about the subject to her."

* * *

"So, fellows..." Misato looked confusedly at the objects the gentlemen brought with them. "What exactly am I looking at?" They were outside Shinji and Rei's emergency room as nurses removed the two sedated teens' bandages and cleaned their wounds for Darrow's medical crews to prep the injection bots.

David answered her, showing her the eight blue-glowing cylinders and sixteen small egg-shaped ones. "Our massive contract with the Artificial Evolution Laboratory gives us pretty a pretty good look at NERV's current events. I don't really get the whole 'giant robot weapon' angle you NERV guys do, but I do know that two of your kids got hurt. Based on the medical report, they took extensive shrapnel wounds, right? Frankly, they'd be in surgery for weeks getting those thousands of bits of metal out of them. Right now, Sarif's already working towards the successor to our mechanical prosthetics: Microscopic robots that perform medical care and augmentation. They'll- theoretically -be able to clear the shrapnel and repair any nerve damage in the two of them. It just so happens that we need a male and female test subject to beta test the nanites...I think you can see what I'm getting at. No cost to you guys. The kids get all the medical they need, and all Sarif needs is to monitor their recovery and performance in the field. Right now, your two kids are the best candidates for human trials."

"David is right," Darrow approached them. "We're about to inject young Ayanami and Ikari- or as Dr. Akagi suggested we refer to them, Unit 00 and 01; I'm not certain if it was some sort of joke -with Five Billion US Dollars worth of research, per teen. The nanites are, as the name implies, nanoscopic robots that act within the users' bodies, enhancing bodily functions. In our case, we intend to use the nanites to return the shrapnel in the direction it entered their flesh, saving the time and incisions human doctors would spend extracting the metals. It should significantly reduce blood loss during the extractions. The nanites will then be reprogrammed with functions advantageous to forensics and investigation."

"Why in the world would you be doing that thing at the end?"

"You do plan to get to the bottom of the motivations for the attack, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't want to throw Shinji and Rei after a bunch of assassins!"

"The enhancements they will receive will protect them, tremendously."

"Okay, sure. This stuff," She motioned to all the glowing blue liquid, "really cost the equivalent of a Trillion Yen?"

Hugh continued. "The process to create the nanites is still _very_ premature. The microprocessors that will be implanted in the subjects' brain stem are the only two of their kind on the planet. The components we need to mass-produce them are easily 20 years away; at this point, we can only generate individual Units. To make nanite biochips and nanite augmentations in the present, we need exorbitant amounts of time and resources. In the future, we plan to assemble them, molecule by molecule, with a system we've named the 'Universal Constructor', but the technology to develop it just isn't here yet. So, instead of developing the nano-augmentations quickly and cheaply, we have to generate them slowly and expensively using 10-nanometer microchip lithography that's been repurposed to bake the nanites. The containers you were looking at are currently Sarif's entire test nanite population, capable of enhancing a user's Head, Arms, Torso, and Legs three times, but we won't have any leftover injection medium after this procedure. In exchange for Shinji and Rei's health, we need them to investigate your benefactors."

"You want a couple of kids to go after the UN?!" Misato was currently rethinking Ritsuko's solution.

"Not the UN, but their Illuminati financiers."

Misato stared, wide eyed, at Darrow. "Did you really just say 'Illuminati' with _no_ irony whatsoever?"

David stepped in. "They use whatever name is most convenient for them at the moment. 'Illuminati', 'Enlightened Ones', 'SEELE'- German for 'Soul', clever really. They're all the same: wealthy bankers, politicians, scientists or cultists that want to shape the world into whatever ideals suit them right now. But when they stoop so low as to send their professional criminals to kill two teenage kids..._somebody_ notices and decides to send two suddenly very dangerous teenage kids to return the favor. It may sound absurd, but what's more messed up than blowing up train car full of kids with a bunch of RPGs?"

"I don't want to send Shinji or Rei off to their deaths ever again."

"I can guarantee you, Colonel Katsuragi, when the injections are complete, Unit-00 and Unit-01 will be the two most qualified individuals on the planet to investigate your 'SEELE'."

* * *

NERV's primary staff were arranged outside the operation area as Darrow directed his staff and their surgical robots, with Fuytsuki, Ritsuko, Misato and Kaji, and Kaworu- weakly leaning against Mari -all watching. Darrow directed his technicians to map out the two victims' bodies, determining injection sites at their neck, both upper arms, their abdomen and their thighs. After developing the program, Darrow personally sat down beside Shinij and Rei's beds and determined the best location to implant the nanite controller.

When he confirmed the design, and David gave his final permission to give away his company's greatest development, Darrow ushered his staff out and activated the surgical robots they had flown in. They quickly and flawlessly cut a fine opening in the back Shinji and Rei's neck and inserted the minuscule computers in the junction of their brain and spinal cord. The robots closed and cauterized the wound, weaving the two subjects' hair over the cut. An untrained eye would never notice them.

The bots then loaded the cylinders into their needles and injected the glowing nanite serum into the injection sites. The blue liquid caused the veins targeted by the autodocs to glow brightly before the serum became diluted by their blood flow, the pair had been receiving regular transfusions since Ritsuko chose not to close their wounds before this treatment took place. After the cylinders were exhausted; four per teen, one cylinder per quadrant of their bodies, technicians loaded the egg-like containers and the autodocs continued injections for two more cycles. Darrow explained to the spectators that the Cylinders contained the base components for the nanites while the Eggs contained enhanced materials for the nanites to utilize. With the base components and two levels of upgrades, the medical nanites should be able to remove the shrapnel with a minimum level of tissue damage.

The autodocs expended the nanite serum completely. Darrow's techs drove them out of the room and Darrow remotely activated the biochips from his terminal in the operating theater. Shinji and Rei convulsed as the chips sent out a defibrillator-like current of electricity, activating and uploading the programs the nanites would follow, and the nanoscopic robots in the teens' bloodstreams swam to the points that they determined the shrapnel to be embedded in. Shinji and Rei both began to shiver intensely as the bots began separating flesh from metal, dirt from sterile tissue, human from train. Hundreds of small foreign objects began to rise out of Shinji and Rei's skin, and nurses surrounded them to bandage away spilled blood and collect the bits of contaminated metal. Misato, Kaji and Mari watched in awe as Shinji and Rei's skin automatically closed and cauterized itself. What should have taken the estimated hundreds of man-hours was completed by the billions of nanoscopic robots in under an hour.

"There will still be some scarring and stretch marks, but the nanites have ensured that the wounds remain sterile and closed. We'll keep them asleep for another day with the nanites dormant to ensure that their bodies acclimate to their presence. But, once the orderlies are finished...their treatment should be complete."

* * *

A/N: For those of you who haven't played DX 1, there are two types of aug systems: Cylinders, which activate a certain skill, and eggs, which upgrade them. I tried to explain that above, but it still might be slightly confusing.


	4. Basic Training

Chapter 4: Basic Training

* * *

She had spent the last few days in a state of semi-consciousness. She had become able to judge her time on the escalating pain she was experiencing, it became more and more severe until, like clockwork, a nurse would inject her with another measure of morphine- Oh, how she welcomed the drug when they injected her. She has never had any desire to inject the opiate recreationally, but whenever some test she underwent at NERV failed and she found herself in a state of trauma yet again, the nursing staff ensured that the pain she suffered was suppressed.

This occasion was different. She was given a global anesthetic and fell unconscious as she saw what she thought was a crippled man inspecting her injuries then driving some form of radio-controlled car up to her bedside...and she had no recollection of any event after that as she woke up, lying prone in a hospital bed, a slight stinging pain across her back. The earlier pain had been the stabbing feel of hundreds of knives thrust in her, now her back only felt...awkward. The overall sensation was significantly less intense than the trauma she remembered; telling Shinji her new perspective on her actions as of the Fourth Impact, and then...Fire. Fire everywhere.

"This is yet another grievous injury that I should not have survived." She spoke to herself in quiet Japanese, the English answer that greeted her surprised her. While Shinji had spent the last few months intensely studying the language, Rei became fluent almost instantly, her affinity for literature and the act of studying being the only real hobby the girl indulged in before the dead Commander's purpose went unfulfilled.

"You are very correct, Miss Ayanami. Your superiors were willing to go to great lengths to ensure your recovery." The crippled man was sitting in between the hospital beds. His voice prompted her to turn her head towards him, where she saw one Shinji Ikari in the other bed, still asleep.

"Shinji? Is he-"

"His body is not as accustomed to experimental treatment as yours is, for obvious reasons."

"Please forgive me, Dr. Darrow, but I'm not sure what 'obvious reasons' you're referencing."

"You recognize me? I'm quite surprised a teenage Japanese girl would be familiar with a greying English codger."

"I _was _hoping to enter pediatric clinical research once I completed my Bachelor's degree. Since it is advantageous to keep up with one's trade, I follow current events in experimental medicine. Anybody involved in rehabilitation or combat medicine knows the name and profile of the father of modern prosthetics. I suppose your presence means that I will be disabled for quite some time..."

"Actually, dear girl, it means exactly the opposite. Dr. Akagi labeled you 'Unit-00', host of the first generation of nanoscopic performance-enhancing augmentations. Shinji Ikari is Unit-01. You've both been treated for your shrapnel injuries by injecting each of you with billions of synthetic bacteriophages. Once programmed, these nanites swarm to a location containing an injury or foreign object- in your case, pieces of subway train -and collectively reverse the trauma. You still need time to recover, but your treatment was over nearly as soon as it started."

"But Shinji is still infirm?"

"You have the distinctive status of being our control Unit. Your genetic history gives you a predisposition for modification. Shinji is a natural human. He needs an extended period of acclimation to the injections. You, on the other hand, have multiple genetic alterations beneficial to biomodification."

"How do you know of my genetic history?" She glared at the British Gentleman.

"From Dr. Akagi, obviously. Sarif Industries has benefited from NERV's biologic research tremendously, though we only go so far as to integrate human users with their artificial prosthetics. Now, you may well be the very first successful synthetic human, but Dr. Akagi and I both agree, there's nothing 'artificial' about you..." He looked on in consideration for a moment. "Well, _now_ there is, but it won't make you any less of the Rei Ayanami you already are. The bacteriophages are microsocpic robots, forged from titanium and magnesium on a 10 nanometer process, which stimulate and agitate individual tissues. The shrapnel particles you received were lifted away from the puncture wounds and sterilized; the nanites are now dormant, waiting to receive a new configuration from the microcontroller we've implanted above your first cervical vertebrae. Without alarming you too much, your brain now has an Internet connection." He quipped, finishing his explanation.

"...I feel no different. I assume it is still deactivated?"

"Yes it is. It won't be rebooted until you and Shinji are ready for orientation. Now, get some more rest, we have a long road ahead of us."

* * *

Two days later...

"I've gotta ask, is the arm a Gulf War wound or something like it?" Kaji asked Mr. Sarif as they drank a morning coffee in one of NERV's open verandas, the pyramid's glass ceilings giving a panoramic view of the GeoFront. The men would occasionally watch a VTOL launch or notice a Section 2 patrol moving through.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Sarif smirked to the UN Investigator.

"I've made my entire career digging up stories nobody believes. Try me."

"After our stock exploded and I became a billionaire overnight, I bought the Detroit Tigers, and I make a point to be down on the grass with the team as they're practicing. I can't stand the pasty old men that run a sports franchise from an office...I got my arm replaced so I could strike out Victor Martinez."

Kaji raised an eyebrow as he and Sarif waited several minutes in silence before the shrewd men erupted in laughter.

"So what about you? Start out as a beat cop before going federal?"

"UN Combined Force, actually. After college I passed the Officer Candidate exam and, later, qualified for an F-2. Kickass ride, by the way. I still have my flight clearance, but I decided to join the UN Inspection division to track down some old friends."

"Colonel Katsuragi?"

"Yeah. She survived the Antarctic Expedition...Ritsuko and I made it a point to make her life better after all that hell happened, but..."

"She seems like the type to take the hard way through life on purpose. I've never understood that in people...atoning for things they didn't do-" His arm spoke up, Darrow sent his employer a message.

"David. Both Units are awake. Unit-00 is fully alert and ready for a briefing. Unit-01 is in ongoing recovery. They're alone at the moment, but they're under surveillance."

"Fine, Hugh." He spoke into his wrist. "I'll be down there to introduce myself...Shall we, Inspector?"

* * *

He opened his eyes, staring down into the pillow he'd spent the last week sleeping on. = I'll go ahead and say it...I'm sick of this shit! =

His train of thought ended when he felt something feathering his hair; a human hand, he noticed. = I recognize that touch! Rei's here with me! = He shot his head up from the bed, only to get motion sick and collapse back down. He groaned slightly.

"Shinji," His favorite voice in the world answered him; "do not exert yourself. We have both been given an experimental treatment as a result of the failed attempt on our lives-"

"Who in the world would hate us so much to blow us up like that?" His tired, frustrated voice answered her. "We protected the world from ending, why would anybody have a problem with that?!"

"Because Commander Ikari isn't the only one who wanted to use Lillith to begin Instrumentality. Commander Ikari's masters wanted _their_ version of Instrumentality to complete...They were denied their satisfaction, and I suppose they wanted vengeance."

"...If somebody else wanted Lillith, how would they get to her?"

"The Fifth Child. He was created by SEELE to act as their conduit to the Final Impact. Like me, he rejected his master...he was more successful than I was..."

"Kaworu. I should've known that already...How oblivious am I?"

"Not oblivious, Shinji. You simply don't pay mind to events that don't involve yourself. You don't intrude into others' privacy in that respect."

"How is it that you're able to take every bad thing I do and describe it like it's a compliment?"

"The same way that you're able to act like I didn't attempt to destroy this world."

"Rei, get over it-" Shinji was cut off as a cluster of individuals entered the room to see Rei standing over him in her hospital gown and Shinji still lying in bed.

"Rei, have you been able to keep your balance?"

"Yes, Doctor Akagi."

"Shinji, can you stand? Rei, don't help him. Shinji needs to get his coordination on his own. We'll be testing you for nerve damage later."

Shinji slid out of the bed, placed his feet on the cold floor, and swayed uneasily while he stood. He looked from Misato, Kaji and Ritsuko to the two grey-haired men standing with them. The clean-shaven one wore a rather elaborate waistcoat and the bearded one wore a trenchcoat and walked with a cane.

"How do you feel, right now, Mr. Ikari?" Shinji noted the man's British accent. He thought about the other British person he knew; Mari really didn't sound like she was from England when he talked to her.

"I feel kind of dizzy..."

"Let's remedy that, then." He motioned to a pair of nurses behind them who wheeled in a cart carrying a stack of snack bars and powdered drink mix. "Shinji, allow me to introduce myself and Mr. Sarif. We've been overseeing your treatment. In case you haven't already figured it out, your shrapnel fragments have been removed and your lacerations closed."

"...Did we get operated on?"

"Not entirely. You've been treated with miniature robots that removed the shrapnel from within you. You were under a global anesthetic at the time and won't remember a thing, but there are now over three billion machines circulating through your bloodstream, waiting to be activated by the microprocessor in your brain stem."

Shinji rubbed his chin and contemplated for a moment before coming to his conclusion. "...Is this some sort of joke?"

"It is not, Shinji." Rei answered him. "We were given an experimental treatment four days ago. I have been awake and receiving briefings on the procedure for the last two. You needed a longer time away from consciousness to allow the nanites to integrate into your body." Shinji stared at her with his jaw hanging open. "I was more receptive to this kind of enhancement because of my genetic disposition to synthetic modification."

"Shinji, you can have all the time you need to let it sink in. You won't feel any different until the biochip is reactivated. Before that happens, the two of you need to go on a diet supplement. These Cyberboost brand food bars", he motioned to the meal cart, "and electrolyte drink mix were created by Versalife for patients with cybernetic prosthetics. The bars contain titanium and magnesium supplements to provide raw materials for the electronics to self-repair, and the drink contains a high salt content to increase the conductivity of your plasma; the nanites communicate by wirelessly sending and receiving Internet Protocol packets through a conductor: the sodium content in your blood, in this case. Both the meal bars and the drink contain a high sugar content to increase the energy your body creates- the nanites harvest the natural bioelectric current your body generates, and a small measure of Neuropazyne, which works to prevent rejection of artificial implants in the body. Dr. Akagi tells me that Rei needed it when she was young to help maintain her body composition."

"Yes Sir, I did. There was a period of time when the majority of my diet consisted of multivitamins and Neuropazyne tablets."

"I can guarantee that this solution will be much more pleasant. Neurop has a very high dependency rate, after all. The meal replacements only require a trace measure of the drug. One meal a day should be replaced by two bars and a large glass of the drink mix. The taste isn't grand, but you won't heave from it, either. Breakfast works if you're going to be given a nighttime assignment, the nanites will have time to process the materials as you activate your augmentations."

"Augmentations?" Shinji asked, still in disbelief.

He directed Shinji and Rei to eat as he explained Sarif's gifts to them in detail. "They haven't been configured yet. When we get to Detroit for your basic training, you will receive several synthetic enhancements to your body:

Your Eyes will be improved with a visor-style computer interface, night vision, and threat identification- all necessary considering what you've just survived. Your Inner Ear will receive a radio transceiver.  
Your Upper Body and Arm strength will be enhanced by nanites stimulating your Biceps, Triceps, Pectoral and Deltoid muscles, with your knuckles and wrist bones being reinforced with the metals you'll be taking in. Colonel Katsuragi tells me that you've practiced Aikido and Eskrima for several years, very good. A martial art such as those give excellent dexterity and self-control.  
Your Torso and Abdomen have been enhanced with nanites situated in your Dermis, they toughen your skin and make you more capable of handling blunt trauma, emit static radiation to interfere with electronic surveillance, and finally- one of our more complicated enhancements -nanites near your pores extract Oxygen from water and inject it into your bloodstream, giving you amphibious survivability underwater; similar to a frog that absorbs Oxygen to breathe through its skin.  
Your Legs have similar enhancements to your Arm muscles. You two are already athletic, but we've enabled you to run faster, jump higher, and walk more quietly-"

Shinji nearly spit out his drink. "How the hell can you do all that?!"

"The nanites and microcontroller exist in a symbiotic relationship with your body. You consume the raw materials they require to maintain themselves and you receive the enhancements the biochip is programmed to enable. So far, you two have the only two _functional nanite _biochip prototypes in the world. Our cheap and poor-quality competitors at Tai-Yong Medical still haven't gotten one off the drawing boards...That's where your 'rental fee' comes in. We need you to investigate the people who attacked you. We know they work for the Belltower private security firm, and we believe that Tai-Yong may very well be the ones who sent the attackers after you, but we need proof. We figure two augmented, combat experienced young people such as yourselves can handle the stress."

"You want us to break in and steal secrets? We have no idea how to do that-" Shinji was still exasperated. Rei stood by his side and listened in passive interest.

"You will receive instruction. _Proper_ instruction, this time. Dr. Akagi told me how your father Shanghaied you into operating under NERV's authority in the past. He must have been truly desperate and out of ideas, back then...We won't be so overbearing, but we do need proof of Tai-Yong's involvement. As such, as soon as you receive your medical discharge, Inspector Kaji will be flying the two of you back to the United States with us. It won't be a fun-filled vacation, but we're not throwing you two into a war, either."

* * *

"Oh, come on Misato, why can't we go with them?" Mari asked as she watched Kaji discussing his flight plan with Sarif and the BE-E flight lead. They needed fuel stops in Okinawa, Hawaii, and Los Angeles, but they should be in Detroit less than 24 hours after they take off.

"You can't be serious, Mari. We need the OD and Unit-06 Pilot in Japan, and that means you and Kaworu are staying here. Shinji and Rei aren't going on a vacation. You saw what had to happen to them."

"Yeah, they got turned into posthuman badasses! Why _wouldn't_ I want in on that?"

"Really, Mari, sometimes I wonder if there's a single sane thought in your head."

* * *

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "How is it that all four Evangelion Pilots survived?"

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "The First and Third were riding in the same train car, our operatives hit it in perfect coordination. The sources in the press report emergency crews pulling burning corpses from that rail line. The Second was shot, the round over-penetrated her body; the bloodstain is still on the concrete walkway by the target. By all accounts, she could be slipping from life as we speak. The Fifth was given _more_ than the lethal dose of concentrated Sarin...The Second and Fifth can only be explained by the extremely rapid response by NERV's Section 2 emergency management. Most of the experienced agents were killed in the JSDF invasion-"

SEELE-03 SOUND ONLY: "The invasion where the Chairman's so-called Perfect Evangelions failed to breach NERV's interior."

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "Enough from you. The Fifth Child was the key to the Invasion, and it betrayed us...it also survived its execution."

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "To kill a human with the AT Field of a god...We have the technology to grow a synthetic Core Organ...we only need to miniaturize it, then implant it into an individual who would not betray us as the Fifth Child did."

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "As for the First and Third, your attackers were quickly overpowered by the Fifth Child's Unit, even as the Fifth Child was receiving a needle in its arm."

SEELE-04 SOUND ONLY: "Perhaps NERV's attempts to build its dummy plugs were not as embarrassing of a failure as Ikari acted?"

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "No, we have proven that the Japanese dummy plugs have failed. Our Adam-based plugs were programmed immediately as opposed to Ikari's inefficient cumulative programming."

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "Then Unit-06 would have had a reserve pilot...We do not know of any adolescents who have volunteered to have a link generated to it, nor have we created any Cores for new pilots."

SEELE-04 SOUND ONLY: "I believe you just identified the pilot. The English female that Ryouji Kaji efficiently killed the JSDF infiltrators alongside...There is no way that she could have acted with that level of skill without official authorization. Security tapes from the center reveal the female assailant utilizing an impact-resistant bodysuit-" * STATIC *

= So how were you able to come to that conclusion so rapidly, Mr. 4? = Kaworu thought as he closed the LISTEN ONLY feed from the Commander's Holodeck. = You shouldn't act with such forwardness, an Englishman such as yourself might give an unfriendly party the compromising identification they need to open the hunt... =

* * *

20 Hours Later...

"Detroit's kind of..." Shinji said to Rei and Kaji as they flew along one the helicopter routes through the city.

"If the entirety of Tokyo-3 were reduced to ash by the Sixth Angel, this is how it would appear." Rei, who had a skill for telling things exactly as they were, answered him.

"Welcome to Urban America, kids. This is what a city looks like under a 60 year unopposed Democratic political machine. The vast majority of America wasn't touched by the Second Impact, this is what corrupt politics does to a city." Kaji answered them from his place at the controls. "Sarif's been doing his damnedest to Rebuild the place, hell, half the city's full-time workforce is hired by him, now. Still, it has a long way to go to heal half a century of urban decay."

"How'd you find that out?"

"We're men. We talked about things like baseball, flying, total economic collapse..."

They flew over the neighborhoods still swept up in America's recession and crossed into Detroit's downtown. Sarif's upturned wing logo appeared on buildings dotted across the cityscape and the pair and their pilot flew into view of Sarif's corporate headquarters. Unlike NERV HQ, it was a standard rectangular skyscraper, but it was huge.

"I suppose that we haven't really considered that we're temporary employees of the most valuable company in North America." Rei observed as Kaji was directed to bring the NERV VTOL down on Sarif's executive landing pad on the roof of the 128 story building.

Darrow, Sarif, and several members of Sarif's security division- brandishing their FR-27s menacingly -approached them and led the trio into David's office. The video wall behind Sarif's desk was tuned to a running stock ticker for his company- sitting comfortably at $606 per share, alternating displays from his security camera network, and a Tigers game showing live on the third screen.

"Before we do anything," David began as he sat down at his desk, "let's get you three settled. Sarif owns the Chiron building a short ways from here. We use it as our employees' dormitory for those of them who don't already have their own place. You'll technically be getting a one-bedroom, but it has two slide out-sofas and an enormous television in the living area, so actual space isn't a problem. Tomorrow, you'll be greeted on the ground floor and taken to the security training grounds. We have a set of tailored challenges for augmented and 'basic' trainees. You two-" He motioned to the teens. "will be getting your nanites activated at 0700 in Darrow's lab then taken to the course. You'll get your aug orientation on the course as you complete the obstacles you're presented. Now, it's obscenely late, your pilot and bodyguard for this trip has the address and apartment number, so I trust him _and_ the security detail that'll be getting you guys home safe. Your bird will be hand-tuned by our aircraft mechanics while you're here."

"Thanks very much, David." Kaji answered.

"Oh, that reminds me. It's 'Boss' now; we have to keep _some_ semblance of order around here, and Ikari, Ayanami, and Kaji are officially listed in our HR department as private investigators under the security department." He pressed a button on his desk. "How long until the passcards get here?"

"Any minute now, Mr. Sarif." His long-time secreatry, Athene, answered him. They were eventually delivered by a guard after the quartet waited in a somewhat-awkward silence.

"Right. Tomorrow is your orientation, and after the nanites get activated neither of you will need Inspectior Kaji's protection, anymore."

"Hey now!"

David smirked at the poorly-shaven bodyguard as several security guards arrived to take them to their apartment.

* * *

"Nice place. It's late, so don't do any goofing off, lets all just get some sleep." Kaji said as the automated room opened the blinds and set the thermostat for a more comfortable temperature. He went to the small bedroom and opened the computer terminal, contacting Misato over the Internet, while Shinji found the giant wall television's controls.

_This is Eliza Cassan. Detroit welcomes David Sarif and Dr. Hugh Darrow back from their reportedly successful trip to the experimental 'Future City' of Tokyo-3. The two experts on prosthetics traveled to Japan to offer Sarif Industries' products to wounded forces from the 'NERV' UN peacekeeping organization. Their solution is expected to allow members of NERV to act in spite of injuries resulting from the recent terrorist strikes on their facilities. NERV has achieved international recognition for its efforts in repairing the damages caused by the Asteroid strike in Antarctica- dubbed the Second Impact -16 years ago.  
Remember, for the latest reports, always choose Live from Picus._

"Is that an example of 'spin' in the news, Shinji?" Rei asked him as she opened one of the fold-out couches to make her bed.

"As thinly veiled of an example as there can be, yes." He answered as he climbed into his own.

* * *

They were awakened at 0630 the next morning by a wakeup alarm from Sarif's testing lab. Kaji reminded the teens to eat their prescription meal bars and dress for what would amount to a very tough workout. When their escort arrived, Kaji was wearing his usual poorly-kempt sportcoat and slacks combination while Shinji and Rei were both dressed in running shoes and exercise pants and shirts. They rode the overhead inverted subway over the city, seeing the police presence in the streets. Sarif had told Kaji about the past gang problems Detroit had and how Sarif's contributions to the police department had weakened the gangs' hold on money throughout the city, but, like other problems Detroit still had, there was still work to be done.

They rode into the business terminal in Sarif's building to be greeted by Dr. Darrow as they disembarked. He took them on an express elevator deep down into the basement of the tower. There, they were ushered into a medical examination area with a classroom and physical challenge course connected to its corridors. Darrow sat the trio down in the classroom and began a slideshow presentation on the nanites installed in their bodies. They learned what to expect from the video interface in their eyes, how to mentally activate and deactivate their enhancements to better manage the electrical power their bodies generated, and how Sarif's training ground was designed to test experimental police prosthetics. They wouldn't have things like Tasers or tear gas canisters in their wrists or grappling hook launchers in their arms, but they will still have their wits about them during the training.

Darrow finished the briefing and they all followed him to the medical lab. Shinij and Rei were directed to sit up on the exam beds and Darrow opened a computer terminal which targeted the biochips implanted in the two teens. They felt an electric shock which stunned them rigid in their seats as their eyes lit up with the bioelectrics flowing through them, Shinji's eyes glowing an electric blue and Rei's eyes glowing red like fire. They read the bootstrap output being projected onto their retina.

_Compute Node Linux Environment.  
No. of CPUs: 3.1X10^9  
RAM: 3.1X10^9MB  
Bandwidth: 10Gb 802.11 Multiple Input Multiple Output_

_Operator: Shinji Ikari, M  
Race: Asian  
Age: 15 Years_

"Rei...are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Shinji was terrified and awestruck.

A bright light flashed in their eyes before they found themselves looking at the world through a computer interface. Shinji turned his eyes up and to his left and saw an x-ray output of his body, with a counter for his heart rate, blood oxygen level, and statuses for any broken bones. He looked to his right and saw icons representing the various augmentations: a flexed, muscled arm holding a knife; a red cross over a kevlar vest; a scrambled radio antenna; a water meter reading dissolved oxygen levels; a pair of legs running very fast.

"Yes. It appears that we're connected to a computer representation of the world around us. It's not terribly different from the heads-up-displays in the Evas."

"Very good, Miss Ayanami. That means that the system integration is functional. Now, please stand and feel for your balance. It may feel awkward at first, with the nanites correcting your inner ear; that's part of the trauma resistance augmentation."

Shinji and Rei dropped from the bed to their feet. Darrow instructed them to lean as far to their sides as they could. When the began to fall, their legs righted themselves reflexively. "Very good. You'll experience more of that shortly." He pressed a button on his desk and a security officer appeared. "The UN Inspector General and I will be proceeding to the test observation platform, you two please follow our escort to the staging area."

Rei answered with a simple 'Yes Sir' for the both of them.

* * *

Shinji and Rei found themselves in a waiting area filled with men and women of various races and statures, all with some form of robotic prosthetics. Several of them reacted with raised eyebrows at the two _children_ entering the room.

"Aren't you kids a little young to be combat augs?" One man with a flat-top haircut and two artificial legs asked them.

"Yes. Yes we are." Rei answered. "How did you come to receive your injuries?"

The man was surprised at the blue-haired girl's courtesy; most of the Detroit girls with messed up hair colors were gang townies. "It was a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Sarif has a DOD contract offering artificial limbs to war vets...the drugs we have to take absolutely beat the hell out of us, though. What about you two?"

"Our subway train derailed after it was bombed. We were casualties of the attacks on Tokyo-3. Perhaps you saw it on the news broadcast?"

"Huh...Yeah, I did...what kind of bastard would blow up a train with civilians onboard? You two don't have any prosthetics, so..."

"We have internal augmentations."

"Ah. Well, at least you don't have to worry about strange looks from folks-"

_IKARI AND AYANAMI. REPORT TO THE STARTING BLOCK._

The two teens left the inquisitive soldier and entered the door marked 'Training'. Inside they found a long corridor with another door at the end of the hall. The radios inside their heads spoke, causing Shinji to jump in his shoes while Rei stared, unamused, at her skittish boyfriend.

"We'll need to work on your anxiety in the future, Shinji. Your first task is simple: Open the locked door. Search the area for the door key- some careless homeowners and employees often leave room keys/passwords/id cards right out in the open. Learn to exploit this."

Shinji and Rei began searching with their eyes until Rei thought to mentally order the identification software to act as a metal detector. She found the door key stuffed under the bedding for an artificial plant at the end of the hallway.

"Very good Rei. Use your augmentations to your advantage. You do have them at your disposal, after all. Put the key back in the plant after you open the door."

The next room had no key, but there was a toolbox in a cabinet. The next door, Darrow explained, needed to be opened without a key. Rei moved to the toolbox and removed a screwdriver and Allen wrench from the trays and began deftly picking the lock, until Shinji found a hammer and awl. He stepped to Rei's side and tapped the pins loose from the half-pin barrel hinges and removed the door from its frame.

"Thank you, Shinji. Now we'll need to shut that part of the course down while maintenance reattaches the door." Darrow complained while Kaji laughed at his misfortune and Shinji's creativity. "The next room has a keypad entry system. Find the password somewhere in the room."

"Okay, Rei." Shinji stated out loud. "This'll be like the first room, so look around for anything that a code could be buried under." He sat down in the office chair by the desk in the room and rooted through the drawers, only to have a sneaky spark of inspiration. He flipped the chair over onto its head and grabbed the notepad taped to its underside. "Rei, type this in the door pad: Zero-Four-Five-One." The door opened to another room. This one was completely empty except for the door at the end of the hall and the window where they could see Darrow and Kaji watching them.

"If you are familiar with brute-force attacks, you'll know that the 3.1 Billion node computer network inside you can be used to flood a security system with password guesses. This door is controlled by a wireless switch using 64-bit security. More complicated locks will take longer to override, so you'll need to manage your time when investigating in the field."

Rei used her mental WiFi connection to determine the keypad's network address, then began flooding it with every 64-bit value her nanite network could generate. The door opened after roughly one minute of flooding, as Darrow noted.

"Once again, the process will be similar in the field, but it will be much more difficult. We use an easy lock here to save time."

The next room found Shinji and Rei looking at a Sarif security guard lying on his face on the floor.

"Officer Winslow here was given the 'wrong' drugs. Use the biochip to diagnose and treat him."

Rei stepped up to him as Shinji watched. She noticed he had a weak, erratic pulse and no breathing. She downloaded the proper steps for cardiopulmonary resuscitation into a readable document and began giving him chest thrusts and rescue breaths.

"Shinji, you have a higher electrical charge than Rei, right now. She has diagnosed him properly, it _is_ simulated fibrillation. Use your hands to deliver a shock to Winslow when she finishes her chest blows."

He stepped up to Rei as she took a moment to breathe. He placed his hands on the two targets the biochip marked on the man's body and cringed as a minor electric shock was transferred from his hands to the guard's body. The man opened his eyes, coughed and sputtered, and thanked the two before obscenely stating how he hated acting in these training exercises, then handed the door key to Shinji as they were given permission to move to the sixth room in their orientation...

...It was pitch black, and Shinji tripped and his feet jumped to a landing position automatically.

"Shinji, that's the balance compensation I demonstrated earlier. Now, activate your night vision." Shinji and Rei's vision melded into a green hue as crates and barriers appeared before them in the darkness. "Navigate the container maze and exit the room. The next door is unlocked."

With night vision, it was easy. There was a path through the boxes that simply needed to be found, then casually walked until the pair reached the exit.

"Remember, not using your tools when they are necessary can lead to embarrassing injury, correct _Shinji_?"

"Not. Funny. Where next?"

"First, walk to the office in the side of the hallway and grab a drink and a Cyberboost bar. You'll need them."

They took the augmented refreshments from a guard in the office and continued to the next room, a large gap in the floor.

"If you haven't figured it out yet, this is a long jump. Use your leg strength to mind the gap."

Shinji shrugged to Rei and sprinted up to the ledge and jumped, sailing through the air to trip on the edge and land on his hands and knees. He noted that his left foot was throbbing in pain and had turned orange on his monitor.

"Rei...this isn't just an easy game. I sprained my ankle-"

"The medical bot you'll be approaching soon will re-set it, Shinji." Darrow answered over the radio.

Shinji waved to Rei to come. She ran to the edge and jumped, only to come short and nearly fall to the floor deep below if Shinji hadn't caught her arms and hoisted her up, Rei blushing at Shinji's strength, which he still rarely showed off. = He is always so gentle at home...I regularly forget all that he's capable of... =

"It'll be good to remember that Shinji has more natural leg strength than Rei, but the two of you doing the course together has paid off rather well, so far. The next room is pretty big: it's a climbing test. Much like the night vision test, we've stacked shipping crates that need to be navigated- vertically, this time. The lights will stay on, however.

Rei wasn't as strong as Shinji, but her lower weight meant less work for her upper body to handle. By diverting more power to her arm enhancements, she quickly hoisted herself up each level of crates, waiting to pull Shinji, who was tender around his ankle, as he slowly followed her. They found themselves on a ledge overlooking an Olympic swimming pool.

"Clothes stay on, no swimwear. You won't be swimming at all, actually. You need to jump in, sink to the bottom, and _walk_ to the other side. Your amphibious augmentation will keep you breathing. It'll feel odd, but you won't be breathing in, just _out,_ as the oxygen injected into your blood gets filtered out in your lungs."

"Rei..." Shinji apprehensively turned to her. "You know I-"

She held his hand and walked to the edge. "We won't be swimming, like he said. We should trust our doctors." She jumped in, pulling him in behind her...

...It was incredible. They felt themselves quickly needing to breathe out, but felt no signs of drowning or asphyxiation underwater. The pool water stung their eyes, but they needed to see to get out, so they pressed forward, walking the 100 meters to the end of the pool and climbing out on the ladder at the end.

They blinked the pain away and spat the pool water out of their mouths. Shinji was directed to the autodoc nearby which gave his foot a light painkiller and worked his ankle back into proper walking condition.

"Our mechanical subjects don't have the AquaLung aug. It's still experimental. They _do_ have to swim, and it's not easy, with the components they use. You two are the first to use this particular development."

"It was most unlike LCL." Rei stated to Shinij as the bot finished his leg.

"You two get dried off. Your defense training begins next."

Shinji and Rei stepped under the hot-air blowers and felt the water wick away. They walked through the armored doors to be stopped by a quartermaster. He read their identification into the security network and handed them their new weapons.

"Standard-issue Zenith 10mm handgun. You...kids...ever handle a handgun before?" He quizzically looked at the teenage pair before him.

"We receive small-arms training at our home employment." Rei answered him, almost mechanically.

"...Right. Well, the range before you tests basic firearm skills. You'll receive magazines when you step up to the firing line."

They entered the range and a window beside each lane opened. Shinji and Rei each took a magazine and installed it.

"When I release the targets, they'll scoot in towards the failure line. The farther away the bullseye, the more accurate of a shooter you are." Darrow released the targets and they rode the rails in towards the firing line...They _should_ have rode the rails in towards the firing line, anyway. Shinji and Rei both centered several shots on the chest and head as soon as they were released. Kaji made Darrow aware of the significant training they receive at NERV.

"If that be the case, then we'll level the playing field..." The two deadshot teens were suddenly stricken with a bout of chills, and they began uncontrollably shivering and went cross eyed as the next targets slid down the tracks.

Rei struggled to bring her hands to bear on the blurry target. Shinji had double vision and thought to himself. = Center _in between the targets_ and pull the trigger. = Shinji fired in between the two human profiles and they were struck in the silouhette's throat. The tremors stopped and Kaji clapped at Shinji's lethality, even when impaired. They were directed to remove the magazines but keep the handguns. This was to be their standard weapon for the duration of their employment. They would receive magazines and ammunition for defense later.

They continued on to the next room. This range went back much, much farther, to the point that the backdrop was nearly invisible.

"How much of Detroit did they have to dig up to build this place?" Shinji asked nobody in the room, forgetting that his transceiver was still live.

"Quite a bit, Shinji. Don't worry about the logistics of it. David owns most of the city, already. This is the rifle range. You'll be tested with our Suppressed Extreme Range Sniper Rifle. If we used the standard variant, the noise would knock down the range partitions."

Rei picked a sniper rifle from the armory closet, pressed the target release for both lanes, and shot them both the instant they were released onto the rails.

"...Just to be clear...How was Miss Ayanami capable of that?"

"Her favorite loadout at NERV was the precision rifle...It's just kind of her thing."

"...Right. Well, the rifles have to be checked back in before you move on." The pair emptied their weapons and returned them to the armory closet, prompting Darrow to open the next corridor.

"This is the explosives range. Your task is to set traps for the cheap video bots we have patrolling the hallway." A wall panel opened to reveal proximity tripmines. "Lure them into range of the mine and it will be destroyed. Don't worry, they exist to be replaced."

Shinji took several out of the panel and darted into the hallway, tossing the mines right to the bases of the patrol bots. "Why set a trap when you can take the fight to them?" He asked over the radio then laughed madly as bits of servo motor and chassis bounced around the corridor.

"Shinji," Darrow answered, "you're not only acting recklessly, you're abandoning the point of this training when you break our rules."

"When you're in an engagement where your mere presence is a threat to your life, Doctor, there are _no_ rules, only survival. We've learned that from experience."

"Yes, yes, your philosophy is as valid as our own...The next chamber is mine defusal. There are electrical stun mines on each corner wall. Your task is to remove them. They have a time delay with which they can be disabled after you enter within the mine's range.

The door opened and Shinji and Rei noted the two traps on either side of the room. Rei silently walked to one of the mines and extracted it from the wall. She saw the other one was a direct line away from here, so she concentrated her strength in her throwing arm, and sent one mine flying into another. The mines exploded when they contacted, sending arcs of electricity through the room.

"You were supposed to disarm _both_ of them, Rei."

"Why? There was a more efficient solution." She asked, curious as to why one wouldn't choose such an obvious route.

"You two are going to give me an ulcer. The fourteenth room is the stealth test. The far door will close if a security camera or audio trigger detects you."

The door to the labyrinthine room opened and the teens saw several of the miniature cameras embedded in the ceilings and walls.

"Shinji," Rei stated, "the computer architecture we have been supplied is capable of interfering with other networked devices. Let's not waste our time avoiding the cameras, simply overpower them."

"Right." The pair looked through the hallways, marking the detection hardware with their identification software, and wirelessly mapped the room's security. They waited at the entrance to the room as their mental network launched brute-force attacks on the security system, and one by one, the cameras in Darrow's security terminal went off-line. The pair sprinted through the halls to the exit, to find the door closed.

"You told us to avoid the security, Darrow." Shinji accused over the radio.

"Yes, but when an entire wing goes dark, the security official will know something is up."

Shinji deactivated his radio and whispered to Rei. "How strong is the electric lock, here?"

Rei closed her eyes and examined the wireless network around them. "256-bit. We could be here for days trying to break through it." She began walking back to the entrance to begin again when Shinji noticed a ventilation cover that looked large enough to crawl through. He stimulated and tensed his arms and tore the vent cover away from the wall, motioning for Rei to follow him inside. He noted that he was oriented relatively Eastward on a Northbound corridor, so he turned left at the nearby vent junction and found himself looking out of another cover into a third crate maze. He shuffled and squeezed around to kick and pound the cover away and awkwardly squeeze into the next room.

"Shinji," Darrow called over the radio, "I'd like you to understand how much this damage to our facilities is going to cost."

"I don't care about the damage I cause. I'm going through this course following the real world's rules. Specifically, none."

"The difference between there and here is that this _isn't_ a fight for survival. In this final area, the two of you will receive a Taser. It contains a charge strong enough to overpower an electrically enhanced participant...I think you two know what to do."

Shinji looked over to Rei. "No."

"What?" Darrow asked.

"I've had to fight Rei as part of my training, before. I'm not fighting her here."

"Normally it's one agent against a team of security. Since we have two augmented personnel performing the course, we decided to change the setup. If you don't fight, the door doesn't open, and this one doesn't have a floor vent."

"Shinji, let's just finish this course." She said to him. Two guards entered the room and handed the pair each one shock tool. The lights were cut, bathing the two in darkness. Shinji and Rei instinctively activated their night vision. "I do not see a clever way to subvert the rules, here."

They split and moved to either side of the room, their identification software tracking one another as Rei silently drifted through the ground-level corridors. Shinji took advantage of his leg strength to get up on top of the crates, keeping a room's distance between him and her. = I...I...the last time we fought...I hadn't asked her out, then. We've spent most of our time sitting on alert until she...No, Shinji you don't get to think like that. She did nothing wrong...The last couple of months, we didn't do any fighting at all...Then she gets blown up because _I_ let her come to NERV with me that day...I _knew _something bad would happen! This is why I wasn't sleeping the night before! I...I should've been the only one on that train... = His once-overcome depression got the better of him, again. He climbed across the containers until he was over Rei's position. He jumped down directly in front of her and he dropped his weapon.

"Shinji," She said. "We need to fight properly."

"Yeah, you just won." He brought her weapon up to his chest and forced her hand to shock him. He convulsed and collapsed to the ground. "We-Well...done."

The doors opened and several guards and medics entered to check on him as he and Rei were brought out of their assessment.


	5. The Briton

Answers: Kaze and Fleight, I went with NanoAugs because they are _much_ cooler, and you find out at the end of DX: HR that Sarif does in fact have the first-gen nano aug prototypes...

* * *

Chapter 5: The Briton

* * *

NERV Conference Room

Mari was standing before Misato and Professor Fuyutsuki, late at night, while Kaworu typed a spreadsheet displaying the suspected identities of their political enemy.

_SEELE-01: Lorenz, Germany.  
SEELE-02: UNKNOWN, UNKNOWN  
SEELE-03: UNKNOWN, UNKNOWN  
SEELE-04: UNKNOWN, England.  
SEELE-05: UNKNOWN, China?_

"So you see," Mari pointed a stick towards the projection on the wall. "The five known SEELE Representatives are currently well-concealed. We know that Chairman Keel Lorenz of the UN Security Council represents Germany, and we have a transcript of a conversation recorded by Kaworu which we've analyzed and determined possible identities of SEELE-04 and 05."

"And Kaworu was able to steal this, how?"

"Ask the Professor, Misato."

"Mr. Nagisa managed to get into Ikari's holodeck, didn't he?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"Yep he did. Anyway, SEELE-05 made several specific mentions about Belltower security and Tai-Yong Medical, using an insider's style of speech. We've got a hunch that it's a Tai-Yong executive, hell, it might even be Zhao Yun Ru herself."

"Pinning the blame on the richest woman on Earth is a risky move, Captain Illustrious."

"Yeah, but someone on SEELE's council is _going_ to be way at the top...which brings me to my next point. SEELE-04: Kaworu was able to extract the audio from the masking tones, and SEELE-04 is confirmed to speak with an English accent and, more importantly, managed to identify _me_ while in the SEELE Units' conference."

"You've got an identification from nothing more than an accent?" Fuyutsuki wasn't an idealist, indeed he was a skeptic for life, and Mari's report was far too convenient to be true.

"There's only one Englishman that I can relate to NERV and the UN. Lucius DeBeers, Labour Party in the House of Lords. He favors unification of the EU into a single 'Europa' nation...sounds like a conspiracy type, right? More importantly, his place on the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy oversaw post Second-Impact recovery. He oversaw the pool of candidates for the IPEA when Unit-05's construction started. I _know _it's him after he fingered me as Kaji's hired gun during the Professor's rescue."

"What's your recommendation, Operations Director?"

"Sub-Commander Katsuragi, I would like to put in the request for a 96-hour pass. I need to set up a meeting with my MP."

"Don't tell me you plan to fly to England and shoot this guy during a Parliament Assembly."

"Of course not...I planned on doing it at his house."

* * *

Roughly one day later...

"So let me get this straight;" David fast forwarded through the video feeds from Shinji and Rei's mockery of his training program. "You deconstruct the lock-picking facility, outperform every previous candidate on the firing ranges, destroy our explosives and defusal ranges, essentially cheat during the stealth portion, and Shinji-" He restarted the feed at the point where Shinji gave up during their duel. "-what exactly was this stunt here?"

The boy had been wearing a sullen expression ever since he'd been checked by a medic after 'losing'. "Rei shouldn't be here. I'm the only one who should've been attacked that day. If I hadn't been acting like a lost sheep the day before then she wouldn't be riding the train with me-"

"Shinji," The competitive businessman answered. "it doesn't matter who was on the train that day. You and Rei both survived because of _our_ intervention. What matters is Dr. Akagi's resourcefulness and the fact that we've identified the terrorists that did this to you. The two assholes your friend caught work for Belltower private security, and Belltower's biggest contractor is TYM...If Tai-Yong has any connection to 'SEELE', this is the proof. There's no other reason for you two to be attacked by those bastards.

We're not throwing you after them until NERV gives us a concrete lead on SEELE's identities, your friend Mr. Nagisa is handling that right now. If you don't take out the leadership at the very top, they'll simply replace whatever underlings you do manage to take care of."

"Then we ...wait?" Rei asked.

"Well, we do have some more testing to do. We need to test your drive capacity, so we're going to have you doing some broadcasting. When you two are out in the real world, the glowing eyes might set some people off..." He handed them each a set of fitted sunglasses. "Your vision is augmented, after all, but it's better if people don't know that."

Shinji and Rei each put their sunglasses on, and Shinji noticed one implication of David's statement. "Does that mean we've gotta wear these things at night?"

* * *

She brought her VTOL down on London Heliport's Thames River landing pad and quickly reread the messages she'd sent DeBeers after Kaworu's investigation. Mari's shrewd lies had convinced the old man that she'd survived the Bethany incident, had left the IPEA, and was now looking to receive a recommendation for Cambridge, and a Parliamentarian would have great weight on her acceptance board. She had a meeting in his London office and had flown in dressed in a knee-length skirt, jacket, and hair in a bun, looking like a young woman entering law school. "They say discretion is the better part of valor, but still. I need to be quiet if I'm going to have to off this guy in public."

She entered the terminal, registered her aircraft, and checked customs, showing her UN identification in lieu of a passport; there really isn't anything that a NERV ID can't get access to...except station fees.

"238 Pounds just to land?! Who runs this rickety place?"

"Apologies, miss, but the fee for a temporary vertical craft is set-"

"I know, I know...Where I'm normally stationed, we call this 'highway robbery'." She paid the fee after complaining and hailed a cab. The cabbie drove her to the center of government where she looked on the Parliament building. "Y'know, buddy, this is the first time I've seen England in 10 years. I had to move to Russia when I was seven, and I moved to Japan some time last year...Hell, I'll be going back there after I finish up here today..."

"Stayin' on the Isles for just one day, love? Sounds like a waste of a trip to me."

"Oh, I plan on ending it with a bang." She disembarked and walked to the Parliament Members' offices. She found DeBeers' room and entered when the young, male Parliament intern confirmed her meeting. The frail old man had, of course, aged 10 years since she last saw him.

"Dame Mari Illustrious," He gradually rose from his chair. "please do forgive me for assuming the worst when I heard about Bethany Base. Morgan! Close the doors and get the two of us some tea, would you, dear boy?" The intern complied.

"Think nothing of it, Lord DeBeers. Bethany is being rebuilt and I'm better than ever, I just miss Unit-05." She opened her briefcase and extracted several zipped fabric binders, one of which she discreetly laid on the floor under DeBeers' desk. "Still, I don't feel any remorse for getting to have a peacetime meeting with you."

"Yes, by all accounts, the efforts of the IPEA and NERV ended an extraterrestrial threat that most of us couldn't fathom in our darkest nightmares..."

She laughed a bit and continued. "You know I had no idea what any of you folks were going on about when you plucked me from that orphanage at seven years old? After all, you tell a little hyperactive kid that they get to fight aliens and they think you're the greatest thing ever!"

"I never liked the idea of using Children, believe me, but you yourself seem to have turned out quite well, and that brings us to the subject of our meeting today." The intern returned with drinks and DeBeers helped himself before continuing. "A recommendation to Cambridge, you say? Morgan here is an Oxford man himself." He motioned towards the young man.

She smirked at the young graduate student. "Well, I plan on getting a _real_ education, so..."

The intern answered her. "_This_ microelectronics major thinks you're blowing smoke. Cambridge, ugh!"

"Microelectronics? You should look into Sarif Industries or _Tai-Yong Medical_ after you graduate." She glared into the old man's eyes as she emphasized that name. She noticed the near-invisible change in the old man's complexion. = Gotcha. =

"Getting back on topic now, Miss Illustrious, I'll need a full history from your current employers in...Are you still in Russia?"

"Japan, actually. The United Nations Inspector General at Bethany Base saved me from basically drowning in the ocean after Eva Unit-05 was destroyed. He took me to the NERV Headquarters in Japan, where I started acting in reserve during the brunt of the fighting in Hakone."

The old man looked puzzled for a moment. "You were, at the beginning, IPEA, not NERV. Was this an authorized transfer?"

"No, but the UN overlooked it because of the dire need for pilots when the Second Child was incapacitated. Besides, you're on the National Security committee, you've been briefed on this, haven't you?"

"No. I was told that everything about Unit-05 was destroyed...until I saw what I thought was you in Norway."

"Oh yeah, that little adventure...Well, Inspector General Kaji thought it'd be a good idea to have a bodyguard during his speech to the UN Summit a while ago, so he brought me along while I was still inactive. Having me was a good idea, it ended up saving somebody's life, that day...In fact, I think you'll like what you hear if you play this audio file." She handed him a USB drive. "I promise it's not a virus or a Nigerian Scam, but it is classified. I've gotta ask Morgan to step out."

"This is important, Mr. Everett, go take an hour for lunch today." The Lord gave his intern permission to leave. The young man stepped out and Lucius played the track on his office computer.

* * *

_SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "How is it that all four Evangelion Pilots survived?"_

_SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "The First and Third were riding in the same train car, our operatives hit it in perfect coordination. The sources in the press report emergency crews pulling burning corpses from that rail line. The Second was shot, the round over-penetrated her body; the bloodstain is still on the concrete walkway by the target. By all accounts, she could be slipping from life as we speak. The Fifth was given more than the lethal dose of concentrated Sarin...The Second and Fifth can only be explained by the extremely rapid response by NERV's Section 2 emergency management. Most of the experienced agents were killed in the JSDF invasion-"_

_SEELE-03 SOUND ONLY: "The invasion where the Chairman's so-called Perfect Evangelions failed to breach NERV's interior."_

_SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "Enough from you. The Fifth Child was the key to the Invasion, and it betrayed us...it also survived its execution."_

_SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "To kill a human with the AT Field of a god...We have the technology to grow a synthetic Core Organ...we only need to miniaturize it, then implant it into an individual who would not betray us as the Fifth Child did."_

_SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "As for the First and Third, your attackers were quickly overpowered by the Fifth Child's Unit, even as the Fifth Child was receiving a needle in its arm."_

_SEELE-04 SOUND ONLY: "Perhaps NERV's attempts to build its dummy plugs were not as embarrassing of a failure as Ikari acted?"_

_SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "No, we have proven that the Japanese dummy plugs have failed. Our Adam-based plugs were programmed immediately as opposed to Ikari's inefficient cumulative programming."_

_SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "Then Unit-06 would have had a reserve pilot...We do not know of any adolescents who have volunteered to have a link generated to it, nor have we created any Cores for new pilots."_

_SEELE-04 SOUND ONLY: "I believe you just identified the pilot. The English female that Ryouji Kaji efficiently killed the JSDF infiltrators alongside...There is no way that she could have acted with that level of skill without official authorization. Security tapes from the center reveal the female assailant utilizing an impact-resistant bodysuit-"_

* * *

This time, the electronic masking did not accompany the voices. The various accents were on display for all to hear, and SEELE-04's tone and inflection matched DeBeers' own without question, and the old man's face was a mixture of terror and rage. Mari offered her explanation.

"Just so you know...My hunky boyfriend Kaworu, or _ADAM_, if that name rings a bell, didn't die when your little prick poisoned him. He did, however, uncover the natural voices for the SEELE Units...tell me, do you have your conferences here, or do you have to go back to the DeBeers family estate?"

"...I could shoot you right now."

"But you won't, because you know that'll cause an international uproar. 'HEADLINE: NERV HEROINE MURDERED BY HOUSE OF LORDS'; people won't even have to care what SEELE is...I'm not really looking for a scholarship. I'm here to tell you that having your Chinese friend attempt to kill my friends is a _bad_ idea. I happen to dislike watching my friends suffer in a hospital. I just thought giving you that message is fair for all sides. Good day, sir." She packed up her briefcase and left the room, making her way to a nearby loo where she changed her clothes into her private schoolgirl's outfit: a blouse, tie, pleated skirt and stockings. She pressed a button on the watch she'd been issued when she checked into NERV's armory and felt the explosion that erupted from one particular office. The young Morgan Everett exited the men's room and saw the aftermath of the assassination attempt and ran in to see his mentor barely still alive, his body riddled with shards of what used to be an oak desk.

"Morgan..." The half-dead old man croaked out to his protégé.

"Be still, Sir, we'll get you medical care and life support..." He dialed the local emergency number from his cellular phone.

Meanwhile, a high-school girl pretended to confusedly stumble out of the Parliament offices, audibly wondering how the poor man could be attacked like that. She smirked as she watched several fire trucks on their way to the building.

* * *

AND HE'S OUT!

The Tigers' pitcher threw out Toronto's hitter, and David asked Shinji and Rei if they got a good closeup of the strike.

"So how exactly does watching the game count as training?"

"We're testing the storage area network that operates across the nanites. A three to five hour high-definition video stream is a good, large file to test." He looked at the tablet he was carrying, currently tuned into the output from Shinji's eyes. "And sending out several gigabytes per minute of high-quality video and audio is a good way to stress your infolink."

"Does this mean that you can watch and listen to whatever we're doing?"

"Only when you're broadcasting an assignment. If your cameras stayed on constantly, you'd exhaust all your drive space. It's not so much a matter of privacy as it is a matter of logistics."

The Blue Jays ended up winning 5 runs to 3, and both teen survivors filmed and streamed the entire game, filling up a portion of their storage space before getting the file integrity inspected by Dr. Darrow back at Sarif's tower. As it turns out, uploading 400 Gigabytes from your brain is a rather taxing experience. Shinji and Rei grabbed their heads and wavered in their seats, needing all of their coordination not to collapse to the stadium floor. Both teens were left dazed and lightheaded after the files were deleted.

"It feels as if I were carrying a kettlebell or some other awkward weight, which I then randomly dropped. The change is...disorienting." Rei described the sensation to David.

"We'll adjust the data rate. If a bout of vertigo hits you during a job, it could put you in _actual_ danger. Stuff like this reminds us that you're using prototype equipment."

* * *

The next morning, Tokyo-3...

"A big, loud 'Mission Accomplished' for me, Misato! That Limey bastard never knew what hit him!" Mari had practically sprinted all the way back to the Heliport and had taken off after she checked her VTOL's fuel. Crossing over the arctic bought her a day of time and she had permission to land at the still-healing Bethany base in Russia. After that one fuel stop, well, it was good to be home, and her debrief to Misato was short and sweet.

"Mari, you aren't a hitman." The dark-haired woman answered. "This was a fluke, a necessary evil, an opportunity that matched _you_ simply because you're already familiar with the adversary. However we are (not) going to celebrate an assassination."

"The sub-Commander is correct, Mari." Kaworu entered the conversation. "There is nothing to gain from gloating about death."

"What about being proud of taking out one of the guys that nearly murdered my best friends!?"

"Pride is less important than discretion. SEELE hit us with an anonymous attack. If they want a war with NERV, we're going to give them an Invisible War. Part of that means no gloating at the scene of the crime. By the way, good job and welcome home."

* * *

After the game, and Shinji and Rei's latest test, Kaji and his two charges separated from David and returned to the apartment, where they had a message from Sarif waiting for them on their answering machine.

_NanoAug Unit-00 and 01, make sure the television is 'OFF' and then type '5375' into the remote control...You'll find a few things that'll help you in the future._

Shinji shrugged to Kaji and Rei and typed the key combination into the remote...and the television began to ascend towards the ceiling to reveal a closet space behind it, containing several components for their handguns: laser attachments, barrel suppressors, and two hundred rounds of armor-piercing munitions. There was a note sitting beside the various boxes:

"You two'll eventually have to face people willing to use missiles against a subway train...You can guess where I'm taking this. Your first role is to protect your own lives; that means taking out any opponents quietly from the shadows. There's no point in facing them up front, we aren't prepared to start a war against a PMC."

Kaji summarized what everyone was thinking. "Looks like you two're going to be getting your first assignment very soon..."

* * *

Inside NERV HQ, Kaworu was going through the updated statuses for their adversaries.

_SEELE-01: Lorenz, Germany. ALIVE  
SEELE-02: UNKNOWN, UNKNOWN  
SEELE-03: UNKNOWN, UNKNOWN  
SEELE-04: DeBeers, England. DECEASED?  
SEELE-05: UNKNOWN, China?_

_SEELE-02: DOWD or PAGE, AMERICAN?_

Mari walked up to his side. "You have SEELE-02 pegged?"

"I was able to determine their accent. New-Yorker American. Based on my research into the Illuminati's history, Mr. Sarif was right. 'Illuminati', 'SEELE'...two faces of the same coin. I was able to determine two surviving family lines with American Illuminati involvement. The Rockefellers and Rothschilds all died off in the 1990's. The Page family, famous for their medical and banking success, and the Dowd family, transportation moguls, are both still strong...Stanton Dowd, 22 years old, is the First Mate for one of his family's supertankers. It's in dry dock in New York city as we speak. He would be the easiest to find...If we want the simplest solution for locating SEELE-02, I think he is it...I'll give my report to Colonel Katsuragi as soon as I finalize it. This one is going to be Shinji and Rei's task, they're still in Detroit at the moment..."

* * *

A/N: I think you guys can see how this story is coming together, so far. So, how's mixing Eva history into Deus Ex's future? I'd love to get some reviews!


	6. On Broadway

Answers: Kaze, Vent, Fleight, and Ads: Thanks for the endless compliments, everyone

* * *

Chapter 6: On Broadway

* * *

_This is Eliza Cassan. International terrorism has again revealed itself, this time in London. Yesterday, the administrative offices for Parliament were bombed in an unforeseen attack. Among other individuals with non life-threatening injuries was Lord Lucius DeBeers, now in critical condition at Oxford University Medical Center. The representative from the Upper House is expected to remain on life support for the foreseeable future. The primary suspect for this attack is an unknown adolescent female with brunette hair. Any individuals with more specific information are asked to contact Scotland Yard with their account.  
Remember, for the latest news, always choose Live from Picus._

"Somebody bombed England? Do you think it was the same people that hit us?" Shinji asked Kaji as they listened to the unconventionally beautiful Eliza Cassan's latest news broadcast.

"No, Shinji, think harder. How many teenage English brunettes do we know?"

"Mari?!"

"We should have a call coming from Misato any time now, we'll figure out what happened when she gets to us."

"But you don't actually believe-"

"Yes I do. This just feels like something she'd do." They continued idly watching until the large television signal was replaced by a feed from NERV and routed through Sarif Industries. Small windows containing the faces of Ritsuko, Misato and Fuyutuski, Mari and Kaworu, Darrow, and Sarif appeared.

"So...looks like everybody's here..." Kaji noted as all the feeds buffered in.

"Yes. I'll go first." Misato stated. "Hugh and David, thank you again for saving Shinji and Rei, what you've done for us was selfless and-"

"Self_ish_ actually," Sarif stated. "We've essentially given NERV a Five-Billion Dollar donation...Do you have any idea about the tax writeoff we'll get for it?" He asked and Kaji audibly cracked up from the statement.

Misato facepalmed and continued "...Anyway, Picus news has picked up on the story before we could get this meeting together. Mari?"

"What can I do for Fearless Leader?"

"You've been gloating ever since you got home, so I'll let you handle the debrief."

"Okay! So Kaworu managed to pin this old fart in the House of Lords as SEELE-04, right? Well, I just happen to know old DeBeers from way back when I was picked for the IPEA's alternate Eva program, in case NERV failed- that's where Unit-05 came from, by the way. Anyway, I fly out to England on my shiny new NERV VTOL and arrange a meeting with this guy in his Parliament office. Well, Robert's your uncle, Frannie's your aunt and a couple of blocks of C4 later, and SEELE-04 is down! While I'm out splattering the walls with pensioneer entrails, Kaworu pins SEELE-02 as either an old bastard from the Dowd family or an old bastard from the Page family. Puppy and Watergirl get to go traipsing around NY, NY to find Stanton Dowd- the easiest subject to pick up. He's in New York harbor getting his ship fixed, so he's stuck in place until that changes, and now's our chance to give him a friendly interrogation!" The unhinged girl happily explained.

Darrow commented on the option. "We'll be sending Unit-00 and 01 to find a member of a docked ship's crew, even though there's a distinct possibility that this individual is a complete red herring?"

"It's the most cohesive lead we have, so we cannot pass it over on the grounds of 'possibility'." Kaworu answered.

"No need to be concerned, Dr. Darrow." Fuyutsuki interjected. "It was Mr. Nagisa that uncovered SEELE-04, and the identity was confirmed by Ms. Illustrious. I have complete faith in their investigation of SEELE-02."

"But we cannot afford for Shinji and Rei to assault or endanger any innocent individuals. Everything we are doing is considered outside the law- at best, vigilante justice –and collateral damage leaves a trail of breadcrumbs behind the perpetrator."

"You discussed silence and stealth when we were training, Dr. Darrow. If this individual is associated with the Instrumentality committee in any fashion, he will need to be interrogated no matter what. Perhaps we could have Inspector Kaji's assistance transporting him to a location advantageous to investigation? All we would need do is ensure that there is a safe path to his location before Kaji removes him." Rei was already creating a plan in her head, vocalizing a solution to Darrow's concerns.

"No matter what, Miss Ayanami, discretion is mandatory in this instance. Now, you three need to pack for several days in New York. Sarif can accommodate you in the Hell's Kitchen Hilton."

"Make it room for Four, Doctor." Misato spoke. "I'll be flying out there as well. Kaji, get a plan to touch down at LaGuardia's executive terminal. It'll be much easier for us to all meet up, there."

* * *

Two days later...

"Tell ya what, kids, I love New York!" Kaji hovered the VTOL to a landing at LaGuardia's Marine Air Terminal alongside helicopter traffic and the water shuttle services that dock there. Kaji wired the landing fee directly from NERV's blanket credit account and they showed their NERV IDs to the gate security, allowing them bypass any TSA scrutiny, which didn't stop Kaji from ensuring the TSA guard was embarrassed and put under the spotlight. "But c'mon, buddy, just because I have government ID doesn't mean I don't deserve a pat down and strip search from a man in uniform." Kaji asked, winking and flipping his hair toward the man, leaving the TSA guard sputtering and trying to keep some semblance of dignity.

"Kaji, that was cruel." Shinji argued as they walked away. "He's just trying to do his job."

"His job is identifying terror suspects, not harassing the populace. Anything to make their job harder is worth it. Now, we're in Terminal A, we need to hop on a shuttle bus so we can get to C and the Victory Grill. Misato's not due here for two more hours."

"So she is coming to see us?" Rei asked as they headed to the bus terminal.

"Yeah, but she's doing it with leave time, so she can't get priority transportation like we do. Sucks that she has to fly the standard airlines. Still, _we_ get stuck with the layover time." They eventually made it to the gate Misato's airliner would arrive at. "LaGuardia has free Internet access. You two try checking in."

The two electrified teens agreed and they accepted an address from the public WiFi service. In her mind, Rei looked up an article on human enhancement while Shinji played some music over his infolink. Kaji took out his tablet computer and occasionally checked the broadcast output from Shinji and Rei's biochip.

"Nothing looks odd from Darrow's admin account. This just might work. Now's as good a time as any to tell you that Ritsuko and Kaworu will be mission control for your investigation. NERV has pretty universal intelligence, and they'll be feeding you the latest updates on Dowd's cargo activities."

When Misato's plane landed, the three were waiting close by the gate when the stunning woman emerged amongst the passengers. Gone was the usual jacket and skirt with her identification and campaign achievements; instead she was wearing one of her little black dresses, securing the attention of every male in the room. She spied her fiancée's open arms and darted past him to her essentially-adopted son, wrapping Shinji in her arms while Kaji sheepishly lowered his own and looked around awkwardly. "ShinjiIloveyousomuchImissedyouandyoutooReiI'mgladyou'refeelingbetter!"

"Misato...I'm happy...you're here...too." Shinji gasped out from within the bear hug.

"After you're done making a scene, Misato, we'll get seats at the grill and then we've got to check into the Hilton." Kaji tugged his woman away from Shinji as he tried to catch his breath. They waited at a booth as they ordered their dinners. Kaji ordered an oyster bucket, Misato chose hot wings, Shinji went with mushroom soup, and Rei ate a kale salad. Kaji spoke up from the shell he was cracking. "We rest tonight and fight off the jet lag, then tomorrow the two teenage weapons pig out on Cyberboost bars in the morning and break in to New York Harbor at nightfall."

"Shinji, Rei." Misato answered them. "What we're asking you to do is essentially a criminal action, and I have to break my promise. I wasn't ever going to put you two in danger ever again-"

"We are the best choice to deal with SEELE's violence, Misato." Rei stated. "Captain Illustrious has already proven that, hasn't she?"

"That doesn't mean that I have to like it."

They ate as a family and rode a cab to the Hell's Kitchen district where they checked in to two rooms on the second floor of the aged Hilton hotel. The hotel was getting up in years, but still looked stately and majestic, a testament to the Hilton brand's success.

"You two have your own room, but I don't want to hear any funny sounds coming from it tonight, understand?" Misato gave Shinji and Rei a cutting glare as the quartet went to bed in the evening. Rei took the opportunity to answer her.

"Shinji and I require proper rest before our investigation. It is you and Inspector Kaji who are involved in the active sexual relationship, should we not be concerned with _your_ volume throughout the night?" Misato choked and sputtered on Rei's analysis.

* * *

The next morning, the quartet woke up around 0900 and Misato and Kaji ensured the two augmented teens consumed their prescribed breakfasts.

"We're not sending you two after that boat until 2000 hours. Until then, we've got the whole day to spend in Manhattan. I figure we can visit Central Park until the afternoon and then go to One WTC. The observation platform is now open and they've got a monument to NERV's personnel in their War on Terror museum and memorial."

"If Kaworu is going to be handling our intelligence, what are you two going to be doing?" Shinji spoke up from his morning drink.

"I got Misato and me tickets to go see Jersey Boys at August Wilson Theater. You two are here to work. _We're_ on vacation." Kaji smirked.

Their day went like any happy, normal family of tourists in NYC. They spent their morning watching the Central Park boats and horses, and then bought tickets to the zoo area, where Misato smiled and winked her way into the penguin exhibit during their feeding time, where she proved her expertise over the zookeepers when she helped distribute the fish. She _did_ have a penguin of her own, after all.

They rode the subway to the World Trade Organization's new headquarters, where they took an elevator up the 1776 foot tall building to look out over the cityscape.

"Immediately after the Second Impact, as opposed to the worldwide recovery efforts that should have happened, small territories broke out into armed squabbles everywhere, and UN police actions were placed in places like Burma, Bosnia/Kosovo, and the Iran-Iraq border. As opposed to trying to heal from the damages, rebellion groups from the Middle East and Asia used terror attacks like the Tokyo-2 subway gassing, the original WTO HQ, and the London Bombing. The original Trade Center's destruction led to the US going in to Iraq &amp; Afghanistan while we were creating the Eva Units. When this building opened up last year, they memorialized all the organizations involved with peace efforts, and NERV is right in there with the UN Combined Forces and the member nations' militaries."

Several tourists flocked around Kaji with questions as they overheard his knowledge of the global crises. He eventually rewarded some of the attention with stories of his time in Germany and Russia, clearly outperforming the building's tour guides. "...but, since the wars are cooling and the treaties are being renewed, the UN's closing some of the openings in the Inspector Generals' corps. Let me seriously recommend that anybody interested in these Cold War style spy stories take up work in the private sector; much better chances of a steady paycheck."

The four checked their watches and made their exit: 1600, and they needed to get back to the hotel to have time for Shinji and Rei to prepare for their new job. They rode the subway back to the Hell's Kitchen area and Misato and Kaji cleaned themselves up and dressed for a night of culture, Misato in another of her lovely black dresses and Kaji actually took the time to wear a sportcoat and tie. Shinji and Rei dressed in black cargo pants, _Propper_ brand cooling T-shirts, and jackets that concealed holster pockets for their modified pistols on the inside of their liner. The four emerged together, Shinji and Rei complimenting their well-dressed adult companions. Misato gave them a final pep talk before they left.

"Listen you two, I just want you to know that I'm diametrically opposed to sending you off to sneak around and break into places like a pair of crooks. This was all supposed to _end_. After Lillith it was supposed to be you two being happy teenage kids for once-"

"SEELE's corruption forced our hand, Misato." Rei countered. "Shinji and I also disagree with what we're doing, but we will oppose those who would do harm to any of us."

"She's right, Misato. SEELE is scared to death of us if they wanted to blow me and Rei up, we're not going to let them hurt anybody else."

The cabbie they hailed dropped Misato and Kaji outside August Wilson, and drove on to the New York Harbor offices where Shinji and Rei stepped out.

"What're two kids doing hanging out here?" He said as Shinji paid.

"One of our friends works on a ship. We meet him out here."

"Alright then, call my number for a ride back, we're 24/7!"

The man pulled away and the two teens approached the harbor office building, the odor of the brown Hudson River hanging in the air. "What a unique emulsion of seaweed and Diesel fuel." Rei remarked as they took in the smell. They entered the building and sat down in a visitor's waiting room. A guard in the nearby security office approached them.

"Do you two kids have any business out here? This isn't exactly the mall, you know."

"Stanton Dowd works on one of these boats. He's a friend of ours." Shinji looked up from his seat. He was judging which augmentations would be most advantageous for this scenario, as they wanted to keep as little attention as possible on themselves.

"...I'll see if I can page him and he can meet you out here, but I can't let you travel any farther than this point."

"That is fine, we'll wait." The strangely-haired girl answered him, and wait they did...

...The guard returned and told the pair that Dowd's ship was being inspected by the Coast Guard and Dowd's presence was required on board. They could leave him a message but they would have to leave and return some other day.

Shinji facepalmed and groaned. "We were really hoping to avoid this..." His identification software marked the Vagus nerve in the guard's neck, which he disabled with a strength-enhanced Leopard strike. The guard was knocked to the ground, unconscious.

"Shinji, are we not relying on violence too soon?"

"Yes Rei, we are, but we have to get on Dowd's boat no matter what." He searched the guard's pockets and belt and found a pepper spray gun, a Tazer, and his key to the security office. He looted the items and offered some of it to Rei. "Take the pepper spray, it won't kill anybody. We each have our Zenith, but we shouldn't use them unless the worst happens."

"I agree. If you have his key to the security checkpoint, perhaps we can access the harbor manifest." They laid the guard up on a chair and propped a cushion behind his head. They looked into the guards' office where they saw two more men operating security cameras. Shinji unlocked the door. The two men didn't even turn around to look, figuring that one of the patrol guards had finished a round until the Leopard strikes they felt knocked them out.

"They may only be out for four or five minutes, Rei, so-"

"This shouldn't take long, Shinji." The two computers the guards were using were still logged in to their accounts, so Rei configured them to stream the video output for the facility to NERV's internet address.

* * *

NERV HQ, Tokyo-3

Mari was anxiously looking at a clock on the wall, awaiting some form of contact from Shinji or Rei. "Their little boat ride should've started by now, Kaworu."

"Have faith in them. They are within the normal behavior of any civilian as long as they remain in the entrance of the facility. It's still too early for them to begin their search in earnest, they may not have even arrived at the harbor-" Kaworu was interrupted at his place over a communications terminal at the bridge. A live video feed was pushed to his station, the security recordings of NY Harbor's offices. "Dr. Akagi, they're in. I've got a security layout of the facility...Bringing it up on the monitor wall."

Kaworu mirrored his display to the large video wall at NERV HQ, bringing the output to Ritsuko, Shigeru, Makoto, and the Professor. He opened a radio channel with the encryption software that Dr. Darrow had sent them after Kaji had flown the two newly-activated teens out of Detroit. "Shinji, Rei, do I have contact?"

"Yes, Fifth Child, understood."  
"I can hear you, Kaworu." Their voices filled the bridge.

"AWESOME!" Mari jumped up and down as Ritsuko grabbed her by her ear.

"Shinji, Rei, what's your status?"

"Hi, Ritsuko. We're standing in the security guards' office, Rei just sent you guys a video feed. I've been reading the docking records, if Dowd is in dry dock, that narrows it down to four ships. Can you look his assignment up?"

Kaworu handled this answer. "I have some of his records pulled up, Shinji. He graduated from the US Merchant Marine Academy last year, since then he's been on several of the Dowd-company owned tankers...It seems that his current posting is the Dowd Corporation Ship 'Wall Cloud'. Look for DCS Wall Cloud in the manifest."

"Okay I've got it right here...Dry dock 4...Says it's being refit for chemical storage."

"Then be extremely cautious when you move about the ship. If you die from toxic poisoning...let's not discuss the results."

Shinji and Rei, now armed with the knowledge of Dowd's place of employment, made their way through the offices and out to the docks, seeing the four massive drydocks with one ship in particular, hull painted red and large lettering: 'DCS Wall Cloud', a proud vessel, resting while men of iron prepared her for her voyages of the future. Shinji and Rei stayed at the base of the Cloud's gangplank, zooming their vision to watch a crewman or Coast Guard Inspector occasionally move across the deck.

"Kaworu, access the ships' records and get us a floor plan. We're going to climb the main gangplank. If Dowd is First Mate, he'll either be in the officer's quarters or the wheelhouse..."

"Accessing government records now, Shinji. There are three crew decks above all the cargo space: Crew bunks and a galley, above them is the sickbay and maintainence shop, and at the top flight of stairs are the wheelhouse and officer's cabins. Try to be discreet, please."

"We will, we will..." The pair ascended the gangplank and crouched into a corner at the top. They ducked into the first bunkhouse...the morning crew was asleep while the night crew was out on the job. They tiptoed through the room and up to the first stairwell where they looked around...so far so good. They turned out and into a corridor, two sailors walked by, and the teen trespassers ducked into a nearby room...the electronics lab. Radio and computer components were opened up and in various stages of repair throughout the room. They came face to face with one of the ship's radio operators.

"I've got no idea who you two...kids are. Should I have the Coast Guard guys arrest you?"

"No! We're Stanton's friends and we're trying to surprise him!" Shinji made up on the spot. "Waiting around outside would ruin it, so..."

"Alright, then." He opened an intercom and paged the ship. "First Mate Dowd, you've got somebody to identify in the electronics lab." He turned back to the teens. "We'll wait right here for him." And wait they did...

...A young man with black hair, sideburns, and a beard, not looking particularly older than Shinji and Rei appeared in the doorway with a confused look on his face. "Do I know you guys from somewhere?"

"Not exactly, First Mate Dowd." The strangely-haired girl answered. "But we seriously need to talk to you."

The boy standing beside her gave a cryptic inquiry. "If I said 'Illuminati', would you say 'Family Business'?"

The young man glared. He hated his father's affiliations and wanted nothing to do with them. "What do you want?"

"To talk to you."

"Only talk, nothing else? Sorry if I don't believe that."

"It's important that we do."

"We'll need to do this somewhere else. You two follow me." He took them to the cramped First Mate's stateroom. It was small, but his position got him his own room to live in. Still, he was looking forward to one day living in the spacious Captain's Quarters. "What's this about?"

"Do you watch Picus news?"

"_No_. It's propaganda. When you're raised like I was, you're taught to spot that really fast."

"We were survivors of a murder attempt from people affiliated with a group called 'SEELE'. They have business ties to Illuminati members. A friend of ours, who researches shadow groups like SEELE and the Illuminati led us to you."

"...Yes. The Dowd family has taken part in the stupid rituals for years. Cloaks and robes, candles, standing in a circle and chanting in Latin, the whole stupid shebang, and I hate it...How the hell do I even know you're not just bullshitting me?"

Shinji turned around and lifted his shirt, showing the scar tissue across his back.

"_Holy Shit_. What happened, kid?"

"Our subway train was bombed. We were given extensive emergency surgery. Since there are certain people who think we're dead, we decided to use the opportunity to give them some feedback."

"But you're even younger than I am!"

"Age is no indicator of ability. I am Rei. This is Shinji. We represent NERV."

"NERV? The guys that did the asteroid cleanup?"

"We do a whole lot more that that, Stanton, but we still exist to make the world a better place." Shinji answered. "Still, there are people that hate us for it..." They showed him their NERV ID's.

"Alright I believe you, but I'm not the person to talk to. My dad is kind of paranoid, you see, so I'll have to set up a meeting for you." He made a cell phone call. "...be at Trinity Church tomorrow at 10 AM. Do not be early or late or he won't talk to you. Believe me, he's crazy about stuff like this..."

* * *

A/N: To be continued...


	7. Trinity Church

Chapter 7: Trinity Church

* * *

You're just too good to be true  
Can't take my eyes off of you  
You'd be like heaven to touch  
I wanna hold you so much

* * *

Misato's expression changed from one of enjoyment to a hardened glare at Kaji. She spoke up from the current scene in the theater.

"We shouldn't be here. They could be getting-"

"Misato, if now is when you decide to start worrying about Shinji and Rei, you're about 18 months too late. You never acted like this when they were fighting towering alien beasts."

"That's because I was always watching them!" She snapped, getting frustrated stares from the audience around her.

"Misato, Shinji and Rei are experienced soldiers because of _your_ actions. After they sat in that cockpit for the first time, there was no going back. Their innocence died and those children became adults. This is the logical conclusion to that path. They're operating on their own, but they're not going to be in danger, I've seen that first-hand. They're now capable of seeing outside the human spectrum; they have infrared and ultraviolet vision. They can hear and smell as well as a bloodhound. Their brain is assisted by a billion-node computer network, and they're both stronger than some of our career security agents; all thanks to experimental biology. I trust them to dig up the information we need, you should too."

* * *

I love you baby, and if it's quite all right  
I need you baby; to warm my lonely night.  
I love you baby...

* * *

"So then...is that it?" Shinji asked the young shipmate.

"Until tomorrow, yeah...There's really not enough that I'm involved in to tell you anything useful."

"And your father will be accommodating?" Rei asked him.

"He's paranoid, but he's not an ass. He'll help you guys out, and I can guarantee that he wouldn't hire anybody to kill two kids..."

"Then I guess we should go ahead and get out of here."

"Don't worry about getting noticed. If somebody asks you, tell them I was hosting you."

Shinji and Rei didn't need to slither out of the docks this time, so they walked their way back to the harbor parking lot where they called their cabbie, just now realizing they'd need to use a pay phone.

"Hey Rei, my cell was destroyed on the train...do you still have yours?"

"No, I don't. Our radio uplink does not connect to cellular towers, either."

"Then we'd better get used to carrying change. What do you have on you?"

"Probably exactly what you're carrying. My NERV ID, Sarif ID, firearm, stolen pepper gun and tazer, and a few American bills."

"Yeah, that's what I have...you know, this was our first assignment, right?"

"Yes."

"We didn't kill or really even hurt anybody. Sure, we had to whack those guys on the side of the head, but they ought to be fine by now."

"Our purpose here is not yet complete, Shinji. Perhaps Mr. Dowd will not be as accommodating as his son predicted."

"That's pessimistic for you, Rei."

"We are operating outside of the law now, Shinij. We must prepare for the consequences of our actions, and Mr. Dowd is a wealthy and powerful individual. That is but one of their ships, and we have not researched their railroad and aviation influence."

Their self-reflection ended when their ride pulled up to the curb. They pulled away from the harbor, with no real trail behind them, only three guards' testimony that they were knocked out by two anonymous teenagers...

* * *

Kaji and his fiancée found Shinji and Rei idly sitting on a couch together when they returned from the theater. It didn't take long for Misato to revert to being an overprotective guardian...

"Omygod you two are safe! How did it go? Did you have to kill him-"

"We are not finished, Misato. We need to appear at Trinity Church tomorrow morning. Mr. James Dowd is Stanton's father, and he is our connection...According to his son, he's also rather eccentric."

She furrowed her brow at Rei's answer. "Then we're coming, too. Right, Kaji?"

He sighed and rubbed his eyebrows. "Misato, for the head of a special operations division, you still don't understand covert operations. We can go as far as the entrance to the church and _maybe_ sneak in the back of the sanctuary, but if this guy sees four people ganging up on him, he'll take it as an attack. Quit smothering Shinji. He and Rei will handle whatever happens."

"Quit smothering him?! It was me _not_ smothering him that got him nearly killed!"

"Misato." Shinji interrupted the hysterical woman. "Me being in danger hasn't ever been your fault. I hated being an Eva Pilot, sure, but what would've happened if I quit? Is it your fault that I was sitting on that train? Is it your fault that SEELE consists of heartless bastards?"

"It IS my fault that you're involved in this at all! I could've just as easily refused to drag you into all this hell when it began!"

Rei looked away from Misato and Shinji's current argument. "Inspector Kaji, did you enjoy the theater?"

"Misato's constant worrying kind of held it back...She never really acted like...this" He limply waved over to Misato's inelegant bickering "...until after Gendo was taken care of. Before all that, she was perfectly okay seeing you launch out to your deaths." He dragged Misato away from Shinji and turned in for the night.

* * *

"Ready for our second day of work, Rei?" Shinji said as they finished their now-routine breakfast.

"Of course I am; fighting to prevent SEELE from dominating the world is why I was created. Are you ready, Shinji."

"...I don't know...Misato's so messed up about all this..."

"As is her inalienable right, Shinji. We only see our need to succeed in our tasks. Misato sees our current condition as a reflection of her failure to protect us."

"Misato didn't fail-"

"She promised us a normal life after Lillith died, and she considers everything that has happened to be a failure to keep that promise." She checked the time. "We need to leave for the Church, if Misato and Inspector Kaji are still in bed, we won't have time to wait for them."

* * *

They hailed a cab at the hotel's curbside and left for the historic place of worship. They arrived at the church's steps to be greeted by the Bishop. They'd been expecting them.

"You two young things are here to speak with one of the church Elders. We're very proud to call the Dowd family our own...they've given so much to the people over their time. Just walk into our sanctuary and he'll meet you there."

They obeyed the old fellow and entered the sanctuary, looking forwards to the chior box and massive stained-glass mural of Christ and his Disciples.

They saw the old man, sitting alone at the very first pew under the pulpit. He was a chubby fellow wearing a leather trenchcoat and a full, greying beard. He was looking directly towards the pulpit, though he heard their entry.

"Mr. James Dowd?" They quietly approached him.

He spoke, still looking directly forwards. "Would you believe that I once sat in this pew beside the heirs to the Rockefeller and Rothschild fortunes? Compared to them, the Dowds are young money...My grandfather started out buying small fishing boats before moving onto heavy cargo ships, and he even swindled the Vanderbilts for control of much of the railroad traffic on the East Coast. My father secured dominating shares of various air freight carriers, so the modern Dowds have a near-monopoly on all three methods of transportation. Even when we were at our most unfriendly competition, the old, wealthy families met at houses much like this one to pray for the stability of the financial world...Trinity Church, the Paris Cathedral, the Church of England...When Christ wrote that the love of money was the root of all evil, he didn't give his opinion of those who exist to protect it."

"Basing a system of belief around the defense of greed hardly seems to be a goal worthy of reverence." Rei countered. It seemed to the pair that this man would be a talker.

"We do not exist to defend greed, we exist to contain poverty...We may be forced to allow individuals to go without basic needs or wants, but we have never failed to ensure the livelihood of those nations crucial to the stability of the world...In 1929, when the US stock market crashed, the individuals making up the unenlightened masses panicked and reacted, rather than responding with intelligence. Individuals pulled their entire estates from their banks and stuffed their money into mattresses. Had they simply done nothing, there would have been no Great Depression, as the currency supply would still be traveling between the financial centers, even as businesses closed and houses went empty. In 2008, Greece went bankrupt _from within_, but it was kept alive by the EU. Back here in the States, insecure housing loans and allowances made mandatory by 'compassionate' individuals in government failed and went unpaid en masse, forcing loan and mortgage holders into bankruptcy and resulting in foreclosures by the _millions_...Let me ask you, is it better to work for happiness and want, or stability and need? Every living person wishes for prosperity, but whose responsibility is it to give it to them? The individual exists to collect wealth, but the group, the _ideal_ exists to prevent poverty. As soon as the individual is of the means to succeed without the group, then they become responsible for themselves. So again I ask, what is a better topic to pray for than stability? Should I pray for everybody to become a millionaire? If that were to be the result, then people would line up at gold-plated soup kitchens."

"Forgive me for being critical, but why make a statement on prayer to an individual who may not share your faith?"

"Because my faith and the actions you have performed almost perfectly coincide. I pray to the creator of the world. You defended him from a race of beings intent on destroying it and rebuilding it in their own image. I believe we were all saved from destruction by the son of the creator, and you watched him as he prevented the apocalypse, didn't you? Indeed, you're feeding this conversation to him right now, aren't you, Miss Ayanami?" He turned to look at her.

Shinji looked terrified, Rei showed mild fear, and around the world in NERV's command bridge, late at night, Kaworu and Mari dropped their headphones and gasped.

"How do you know who I am?"

"Paranoia is a drug, my dear. It can become addictive. Take off your sunglasses, let me confirm it for myself."

Shinji looked at Rei. She answered the question he didn't ask. "Yes, Shinji, we should do it, it appears he already knows..."

Their glasses came off, and James looked at the glowing electronics inside their eyes. "Let me ask you, would you have wanted what has been done to you? There are some people who would crawl all over themselves to become a superhuman agent like you are. Even before now, did either of you have any desire to fight against the Precursors? Yes, I also know about the cyborg machines the two of you used to defend the planet. Most of the Illuminati do."

Shinji didn't hesitate. "You're right: I never asked for this. But I'm not going to pretend that being an Eva pilot didn't make my life better after it was all over, and I'm not going to pretend that the things Mr. Sarif did to save my life won't help me get back at the people who attacked us."

"Very good. That's the answer I was hoping to hear. There are individuals who would curse God for what you've been through if they were in your place, and there are those who crave adventure and heroics, but don't ever consider the price they would pay to experience it."

"Mr. Dowd," Rei began. "Only a few militaries and governments outside of Japan know the extent of the Evangelion Program...You are a member of neither-"

"To answer the question you're about to ask...Paranoia is a drug, again, and all the government and forces of the world are addicts. NERV spies on SEELE and the UN, SEELE spies on NERV and its leadership -as a certain young man's late father would have been the only one capable of subverting their plans- while the UN spies on all its member nations."

"And which are you a member of?"

"The Illuminati spies on _everybody_, constantly."

"And you believe that all the other organizations do not spy on you?"

"Yes, because the Illuminati is not so much an organization as it is an Idea: Instrumentalizing wisdom into the tools that will guide civilization...The compass and square edge, masonry's tools; the sword and Cross, the icons of the Templars...The Illuminati is not an organization, but it does regularly give birth to them. The Templars formed after they freed Solomon's fortune from the Muslim-held Jerusalem in the First and Fourth Crusade. The original Masons were French, German and English craftsmen that used their knowledge of architecture and mechanics to create the infrastructure that allowed them to build not only facilities, but implements of progress. An agrarian gatherer saw a fortress rise from the ground and, instead of learning the trade, worshiped the craftsman as a wizard. The Freemasons brought the European Masons' skill for craftsmanship and subterfuge to America, where the great minds of our history threw down the first empire to cover the entirety of the planet...Now, SEELE is only the latest to be birthed from the Enlightened Ones, this time voluntarily created by the United Nations, an organization that only has power from its ability to file documents and record names. Tell me, does SEELE or the United Nations fight for 'world peace'? No, NERV and the Combined Forces do. If the Combined Forces were to disband and return to their mother countries, what power to enforce resolution would the United Nations have? Without NERV or various corporate interests, what power would SEELE have?"

"SEELE has the power to create their own Instrumentality, or to murder those who stopped them from completing it."

"Really? Was it the 'SEELE army' that attacked you?"

"No, the son of ADAM -as you referred to him- identified them as Belltower Private Security forces."

"And who pulls Belltower's strings?"

"Mr. Sarif said Tai-Yong Medical did."

"Why would a substandard medical device company attack two retired robot pilots?"

"Because they have ties to SEELE."

"And did a colleague of yours not just eliminate one of the leadership very recently?"

"Yes, but she was already familiar with him...he was the only real lead we had, we came to you after Kaworu managed to link SEELE and the Illuminati together."

"And SEELE and the Illuminati were linked because SEELE grew out from the members that weren't content with guiding the human race to prosperity, no, they sought to make themselves gods, and you stopped them. They used their wealth and influence to get the UN to create SEELE and authorize it to oversee NERV: Keel Lorenz, German intellectual with more money than he knows what to do with, his time in the German Bundestag is what got him into the UN; Lucius DeBeers, House of Lords, he's currently a vegetable. Congratulate your friend for that.; Zhao Yun Ru, Chinese chairwoman of Tai-Yong Medical, she's a bootlicker and a fraud. She uses others' success to come to her own power. Tai-Yong was her father's company, but he's senile and close to death, she took over through her family's controlling stock and succeeds by paying off the Chinese government to ignore crimes and trust violations, all the way up to using Belltower as her private assassins; Bob Page -unlike Zhao- he brought Page Industries to success through innovation and quality. Their mechanics and electronics division create mass-producible cyber and robotic and weapons, such as their Bravo and Delta Peacebringer combat robots, while Versalife's pharmaceuticals are some of the most effective drugs ever synthesized."

"Then you know the names of the SEELE Units."

"I told you what I do know, but that's everything I can offer you."

"Then I suppose we owe you gratitude." Rei stated.

"Pay it forward by stopping SEELE's stupidity again, you've already done it once."

"We plan on it. May God grant everyone 'stability'."

* * *

The pair took their leave. They called a cab and rode back to the Hilton where Kaji and Misato had already packed.

"You won't believe what we learned."

"It must be good, you two didn't bother to wait for us this morning." Kaji complained.

"You were still asleep at 0930." Rei countered. "We were not going to jeopardize our chances to acquire this intelligence."

"And what intelligence was that?"

"James Dowd confirmed that Keel Lorenz, Lucius DeBeers, Zhao Yun Ru, and Bob Page are SEELE representatives, formed when they gathered together amidst the belief that the Illuminati is too benevolent."

Misato contemplated for a moment. "So...SEELE is the result of the idea that the Illuminati, THE ILLUMINATI, _isn't_ far fetched enough? Am I the last sane woman on the planet!?"

"No, Misato." Kaji snaked an arm around her waist. "You are most definitely _not_ a sane woman. We need to get back to our postings before we make any further decisions. You two get packed fast, Misato's flight is a mid-afternoon takeoff, and it's the early afternoon right now..."

They rode to LaGuardia, waved to Misato as she boarded her airliner, and made their way back to the helibase.

"I don't know what got into her." Kaji mused as they approached their VTOL, sitting static on the pad they arrived at. "She was just supposed to come check up on you two and we'd spend some vacation time together, but she turned into a nervous wreck."

"She refuses to accept our condition, regardless of our recovery."

"She just needs to trust you guys to succeed..."

* * *

24 hours later, in a conference between a Detroit apartment and the GeoFront...

"And why shouldn't we consider the Illuminati a threat?"

"Because, based on our findings, the existence of the Illuminati is simply a glorified attempt to maintain the status quo." Rei handled the debrief to Ritsuko. "SEELE _did_ have ties to the Illuminati, but they severed them on their own accord."

"And what of the Illuminati's espionage activities?"

"What of NERV's? What of the UN's or SEELE's? We should certainly be concerned, but they are not the opponent we should focus our attacks on, at least in the near-future. James Dowd, the Illuminatus we approached, was aware of the SEELE separatists. They created SEELE by manipulating the United Nations, and the identities matched what we already know. Kaworu should have already compiled the updated intelligence."

"Indeed I did, Rei." Kaworu's face appeared on the videoconference monitor. "I'll publish my findings now."

A database document appeared on the monitors logged in to the conference.

_SEELE-01: Lorenz, Germany. ALIVE_  
_SEELE-02: Page, American. ALIVE_  
_SEELE-03: UNKNOWN. UNKNOWN_  
_SEELE-04: DeBeers, England. COMATOSE_  
_SEELE-05: Yun Ru, China. ALIVE_

Ritsuko read the file, going through the names. "Wait...Page? PAGE! THAT SON OF A BITCH! FUCK! FU-"

"Ritsuko, what's wrong!?" Mari grabbed they hysterical woman by the collar and shook her out of her daze. Shinji, Rei, and Kaji stared at the television they were watching, dumbfounded by Ritsuko's breakdown.

"Get the Professor down here! This is a disaster! Page Industries is at Area 51 right this instant! They're the ones responsible for cleaning up the Unit-04 explosion! They have complete diplomatic immunity! We can't touch them! And for that matter, we still don't know who SEELE-03 is!"

A new voice entered the conference, playing over NERV's loudspeakers and repeating to Shinji and Rei's apartment. There was no video stream. "God, Ritsuko, have you completely lost it? You sound even more screwed up than Misato."

"WHO'S THAT!?" The stressed-out blonde shouted to the air around her.

"Okay...you really have gone nucking futs, you're supposed to be the level-headed one."

"It's hard to be level-headed when you're getting played like a violin! Fuyutsuki and I approved the Page Industries contract! And now we've been made out as fools because of it! Even God won't know what they're building at that place behind our backs!"

"Well then, it's good to know I can help you out with SEELE-03."

"How the hell do you know who it is!?"

"Come to Paris...I'll show you."

Ritsuko furrowed her eyebrows, she didn't like talking to ghosts. "Who the hell are you?"

The voice giggled a bit. "Call me...Scarlet."

* * *

A/N: So many conspiracies, so little time! And who's in Paris? Please Review!


	8. Ballin

Chapter 8: Ballin

* * *

Broadcast to specialized conference holodecks around the world...

SEELE-03 SOUND ONLY: "I believe we all see the result of SEELE's declaration of war against NERV. His Lordship's 'young female associate' kicked in the front door of his house. Are you going to retaliate, Chairman?"

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "For the time being, we are going to focus on Tai-Yong Medical's S2 Miniaturization. We are unable to destroy the Evangelion Units until we can penetrate their AT Field, and our history has shown that an assault from automated Evangelions will fail. The female that assaulted the Englishman is under Nagisa's protection, and he is in full control of his power; he can only be matched by a human carrying the power of Adam."

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "Chairman, you're lying in wait while NERV plots to destroy you."

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "'Lying in wait' has caused far more damage to NERV than a military invasion ever did. We inserted our agent into NERV, Nagisa was only spared due to his divinity, a problem we will soon overcome. The First and Third were mutilated, and the Second was eliminated quietly-"

SEELE-03 SOUND ONLY: "That is untrue, now. Somebody high up in the World Health Organization has taken an interest in the Second. She is receiving lifesaving treatment under the WHO's oversight...Somebody is protecting her, and I know that it is not her family, as they had splintered before her transfer to Japan."

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "Exactly, Chairman. You see the result of relying on contract holders and mercenaries to perform our work. We require loyalty and commitment in our subordinates to ensure that our enemies do not survive, as these Children seem to be doing..."

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "So you want to use the American Cowboy solution and send your guns in shooting everything that moves, is that right?"

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "No, it is time for a Changing of the Guard. We shape and direct our own assets into loyal forces who do not leave the job half-done. Tai-Yong's relationship with Belltower is an example of how (not) to succeed. Compare Page Industries' local security. Troops given military-equivalent training, performance-enhancing and pain endurance drugs, and behavior and loyalty conditioning. Bob Page's security forces are willing to fight to die for him."

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "Well then, you see about getting his expertise, in the meantime, _we_ will focus on the construction of the S2 miniature."

* * *

In Detroit, Michigan...

"So let me get this straight...we get an anonymous voice logged in during a- SECURE -conference, Said voice then cryptically orders us to go to Paris, so that the voice can 'show you' SEELE-03.

You know what? This doesn't look like a trap at all." Misato's portrait spoke in disbelief, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah, but we were all there when the message came, and Dr. Akagi won't clear us to go to China or Nevada yet, so-"

"Shinji, what happened to the cautious- no, _timid-_ boy that moved in with me? Why on earth are you chomping at the bit to go launch into another confrontation?"

"He got pissed off at the people who hurt his girlfriend. Paris is the only lead we have, we need to follow it." Shinji answered her.

"Do you remember the last time you jumped into a fight without any intel?"

"Let's see...was that the Eleventh Angel, the Twelfth, or the Thirteenth? I lost count."

Misato dropped her head to her desk. "One of these days, you two, you're going to get yourself into a fight you can't handle, and those electric eyes of yours aren't going to save you-"

Misato cut out and David Sarif appeared on the television.

"YOU TWO! Get to the roof of the building, RIGHT NOW. You're getting flown to Derelict Row!"

"What's going on?!"

"The Ballers just shot up an armored car carrying Neuropazyne. The Motor City Bangers, the rival gang out here, have a bunch of Neurop users, and they see this as an easy score...You two get a _real_ initiation out of it."

"Don't tell me-"

"You're going to get the drug shipments out from under the Ballers' nose before the Bangers do. We're going to fly you in and fastrope you down into the gang territory...I don't need to tell you that this is the kind of place the police don't approach on the beat."

"David, I really hate you right now."

* * *

They rode the elevator up to the Chiron Building's helipad and were ushered into the waiting company VTOL. They hovered out to the slums of the city, where they approached the condemned and abandoned warehouse the gang used as their hideout. The side door of the craft opened and two climbing ropes were lowered to ground level. Shinji looked at Rei beside him.

"We are not new to violence, Shinji. There would be nothing to gain from refusing this assignment." She wove the rope through her arms and slid down it.

He rolled his eyes and followed her. "Just because we do the job doesn't mean I have to enjoy it."

Their radios spoke up, Misato just patched herself in. "You cut me off! What's the deal?! I'm trying to be the responsible one, here!"

Shinji and Rei hunkered down behind an air conditioning vent and backtalked her.

"Misato, hush!" Shinji whispered.

"There's been an emergency. We had to go." Rei explained. "Keep this channel clear."

"Well I think I have a right to be in the loop about you two!"

"Fine, Misato, just shut up! We're going after stolen prosthetics drugs. We're in a gang hideout, trying not to be heard, while you talk our heads off!"

"GANG TERRITORY!? You two are-"

"Seriously, some women just can't shut their mouths. Some of Asuka must've rubbed off on her." Kaji overrode Misato's connection. "I'm in Sarif's security office right now. Nice place, great view of the lobby, you can see everything. I've got you two on the VTOL's video feed and the bird's at minimum safe distance. The site's got plenty of hallways, landings, and storage rooms, so the stash could be anywhere...The good news is the Ballers are the poorer of the two gangs and they only- so far -have handguns and weak personal automatic weapons...The bad news is they've got great outreach and they pick up new scum every day...Try to keep the body count to a minimum, but Sarif gave you those silencers for a reason."

The radio cut and the electrically enhanced, teenage war vets crept to the building's rooftop fire escape and peered down...no guards...something was up.

"Inspector Kaji," Rei started, "there appears to be little resistance. Are we in the proper area?"

"Yes. We roped you down so the jet noise wouldn't make too many ears perk up...This is actually pretty standard...lots of bodies at the turf border, everybody else is inside their apartments, probably falling down drunk...it might make getting out difficult, but if it's quiet now, make your move as fast as you can."

They climbed down to the fire ladder's top landing and looked in on the building's escape windows. The Ballers' red diamond logo was graffitied on the walls and there were forties strewn about the floor. Rei shrugged and opened the window...The sound of a basketball game on television bled through the new entry.

"There's activity, after all. Two options: Continue down or enter here."

"How do we want to do this, Rei?"

"We aren't here to slaughter. Read your biogeneration. We should both have an equal reservoir." Rei turned her eyes up and to the left, bringing her vital sign report into view. "Yes. I am ready."

"Me too...that gives me an idea." Shinji set his retinal modification to view infrared outlines. "...Three in the nearest room. The TV is giving off some interference...one, maybe two asleep a couple of rooms down-...Oh. _Not_ asleep. I'll bet she's cheap...One taking a leak...Occasionally a big cold spot appears and vanishes. Ring any bells?"

"A refrigerator. It must be a dining room. See any human outlines?"

"Just the one that melds with the cold spot...I'm sure there are more."

"Let's enter. Silence your movement." She climbed through the window, drew her handgun, and pointed to it. "Only if they initiate force." Inside Sarif HQ, Kaji confirmed that they were in.

They stayed low and Rei motioned to Shinji to lean into the doorway and look. Three street punks, dressed in long white shirts and red headrags, were watching some basketball and chugging beer on a couple of couches. They slipped past and reached the next door.

"Rei, walk past the door and look out...I'm going to create a problem." Shinji's face morphed into a demented smirk as he got the door to the seedy bunkroom open and he spied the thug and his ho, her dressed in cheap lingerie and heels. He raised his Taser and fired, stabbing the thug in the back, the voltage causing him to collapse on top of the now-terrified and hysterical girl. Shinji withdrew the needles and sprinted to Rei, grabbing her hand and pulling her off to a shadowy corner where they watched the results of his handiwork. The three sports punks heard her screaming and ran into the room to see the terrified tramp and the unconscious brother on top of her.

"Dude! Broseph can't even last, like, four minutes!"  
"Yeah, he's never going to live this one down!"  
"Shit, bro, she knocked his ass _out_!"

"That excitement should keep anybody from noticing us up here." The augmented teen infiltrators moved from their corner towards the refrigerator's signature. They peered into the unclean kitchen area to see a bro occasionally come by to open the fridge and take a forty.

"That is still not as much alcohol as Colonel Katsuragi consumes."

"No...it isn't..." He motioned towards the nearby stairwell. They made their way down to the third floor. They peered out...This was a landing above a large factory floor, the open air area to their right and abandoned offices and restrooms on their left. "Stay low." He entered one office, several mattresses were laid out, but it was empty. "Looks like sleeping areas for the lower-ranking guys...these ones don't have that many belongings yet. The next one looks the same." He nudged one restroom door open and gagged at the smell. Several of the toilets were overflowing and full of...well, yeah. = How the hell can these assholes live like this? = The sight and smell caused his surroundings to truly come to light. = Rei and I...We're living, walking weapons now, just like the Evas...My god, they expect us to stop a gang war! =

He turned to Rei, his face was pale.

"Yes, Shinji, I agree. The smell is horrendous, and I used to think that the recycled LCL at the dummy plug laboratory was the most pungent odor I would encounter."

He snapped out of his thoughts and they peered over the landing's walkway wall, down to the factory floor...there were armed Ballers throughout the facility, most with factory-standard handguns, though some carried TMP-18 automatics. Rei offered her professional opinion.

"The TMP-18 offers high rate of fire with wide spread. Accuracy is sacrificed in exchange for simply flooding the area with fire...If they start shooting, there will be too much lead in the air to dodge...The handgun users don't offer much of a threat."

She nudged him towards the staircase and they stepped down to the second floor. Several similar offices were here, but the doors were closed and locked.

"Rei, can you pick these?"

"Yes, Shinji." She slid her NERV ID into the door crack to manipulate the slide. "But I don't need to." They came upon an office with an intact desk, chair, a laptop showing pornography as a screensaver, and various liquor brands stored on cabinets and bookshelves. "This office must be claimed by the gang boss." She removed the battery from the computer, it cut out, and Rei picked it up to carry it out with her. "The Detroit Police Department may take interest in their files, and those pictures were degrading."

They left the room and shut the door, and Rei used the card trick on the next office. They silently entered...and hit the jackpot. They just found the gang's armory! Pistols and full magazines lined one wall, shotguns and TMP's lined the next, and the desk, home to one sleeping Baller, showed the collection of various knives the gangbangers used, and Shinji spied his trophy for their little excursion. A Chinese Jian sword was hung on the ceiling behind the sleeping armory guard.

"This'll be far too easy..." He crept behind the guard, slipped an arm around his nose and mouth and another around his neck. = Cover any respiratory orifices, and...constrict... = He squeezed, the guard awoke, struggled for several minutes, and fell slack. = Perk up, 'brotha', you're not going to die. You just need some sleep... = He took the sword, drew it from its scabbard, and found that it was in acceptable condition. "Rei, this probably belonged to the Boss, too."

She picked up a knife and its sheath from the assortment. "Yes, now let's get out of here. We still haven't found the Neurop cases-"

"YO! GUNZ! I'm out, man! I need new mags, like, now-...Who da fuck are you? You two little shits like, what, 13?"

"Physically, 15. Mentally, we're a lot older than you are." Shinji and Rei drew their firearms. "You're going to be quiet, or these 10's are going to _make_ you quiet. Where's the Neurop?"

"The Bangerz shit? Listen, kid, I don't know. I don't make decisions around here...But, what are we going to do about this little fuckup? You ain't got the balls to shoot me and I ain't moving."

"If you shout, or even raise your voice, your head explodes."

"All right." The arrogant Baller answered. "HEY-" * BANG *

The suppressed shot didn't carry beyond the confines of the armory. Bits of the Baller's skull splintered into the door behind him.

"Shinji," Rei began. "Does this scenario imply 'killing in cold blood'?"

"He was threatening us and stopping us from moving on...There's probably a better way to do it, but shooting him came across as the best way to get out of this room."

"You and I have killed Angels, but we have not killed our fellow man...until now."

"...I know, Rei...But, I learned at NERV's shooting range -from Aoba, actually- that 'shoot to injure' rarely works. Either the bullet doesn't do enough damage to really hurt the target, or it kills it anyway." Shinji slowly entered the hallway, Rei behind him...too late.

"HEY, FUCKHEAD! WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG, CABRON?! GET YOU SOME AMMO AND GET BACK DOWN HERE-" The one doing the shouting, clearly the one in charge, as the other Ballers were gathered around him, saw the two teens on the landing. "SHIT WE GOT A BREAKIN! WASTE THOSE NACOS!" The gang boss ordered his brothas. They pulled their guns and peppered the walls while Shinji and Rei dove to the floor and began crawling prone to the stairway landing. They arrived and rose to one knee, taking point and waiting for the crowd of Ballers to get choked in the tight quarters of the staircase...

One head appeared, then another, and another. "Rei, stagger our shooting!" Shinji began firing, until half of his 13-round magazine was expended. Rei opened fire at that point, ensuring that one shooter would be on target even if the other was reloading.

One head fell, then another, and another. "Don't these idiots know not to crowd in choke points like this?"

"They are (not) soldiers, Shinij." * BANG * "They are acclimated to fighting on the flat Detroit streets." * BANG * "They've clearly never repelled an invasion, before."

It only took a few small piles of dead bodies for the gang boss to see that they were outclassed.

"ALRIGHT! FUCK, STOP IT, STOP IT!" He appeared at the front of the crowd, holding his TMP above his head, the still-living half of the gang behind him. "What do you two psicópatas want?!"

"The Neurop." Rei answered, their laser pointers tuned to his head.

"Hanzers. I shoulda known. Look, senorita, we don't like augs, and we're not gonna give up the Neurop just because there's a gun to my head."

Shinji half-reasoned, half-taunted him. "We'll try the nice route: If you don't give it to us, the MCB's are going to bust in any minute now. You don't want to pick a fight with them, do you?"

"Fuck you!"

"My partner's body and my own function at a much higher level than yours. If you make a move for your weapon, we will sense it and fire. We're carrying 200 armor-piercing cartridges. We can finish every single one of you."

"As you can see, she's the bad cop. I suggest you listen to her."

Some intellectual spotlight amongst the crowd jumped out in front with this to say. "Why we listening to these freaks?! I say we kill em!" He ran out to in front of the boss and drew his pistol and knife, only to receive a bullet in his head for the trouble.

"Any further negotiation?" Rei asked as she inserted a full magazine.

"Alright, alright. Shit. Just let us go back to our own thing...You two canners plan to kill all of us if I don't give you the stash, don't you?"

"Actually, we hoped to kill no one, but when you started shooting, we felt it best to respond."

"Look. Just go outside, there's a bombed-out shed with no floor, just a hole in the dirt. That's our stash, the stuff's there. Just leave."

"Very well. If the location is fake, we'll come back and finish the job."

"Yeah, yeah, I know you will, that's why I didn't lie...pendejos."

* * *

"Huh...he was telling the truth." Shinij stated in surprise as he lifted the sealed and locked crate from the depression in the ground. He waddled as he carried the awkward weight. The street heading out from the warehouse was littered with junked cars and trash barrels. They came up behind the two shotgun-toting thugs near the entrance to civilized Detroit, who were standing around, smoking and otherwise not paying attention.

"Allow me, Shinji." She silently stepped behind one of the two, Tazed him, and pepper-sprayed the other as he whipped around to see the pair carrying their stolen goods.

They continued to a bus stop slightly down the outskirts roadway they were on, where Kaji checked in with them.

"So...what exactly went down in there?" His voice entered their heads.

"Some punk followed us into the Baller's armory and decided to act tough. We were spotted afterwards and...well the shootout ended after the gang leader realized they were going to lose."

"Remember what I said about 'minimum body count'?"

"That's why we reached a gentlemen's agreement."

"Right...there's a ride coming for you...just hold tight there."

Eventually, a police convoy and several Sarif vehicles stopped at the shelter. David approached them, being guarded by several of his security staff.

"Sorry about throwing you two out here, but with your enhancements configured the way they are, you were the best choice to get the Neurop back without _too_ much collateral damage...Some of the mechanical guys you saw during your training would have shown up with their metal arms and just started punching down walls and throwing dumpsters at people...I needed a more subtle touch. For your efforts, I'm having a 2500 credit reward wired to your NERV acounts."

"What happens to the Neurop now?"

"The amputees who need their shots this week will get them."

Rei turned to the police presence who were making a perimeter around the hideout entrance. "Who is the Officer in Responsible Charge, today?"

"I would be." A voice growled out. He was tall and slim, and wore a very thin goatee and sideburns. "Jensen, SWAT. What can I do to help, miss?"

"I recovered this when we found the Neuropazyne." She handed the computer to Jensen. "I'd say that the Ballers are guilty of a few cybercrimes, not limited to possession of pedophilic pornography."

"...Right...If this is legitimate, we'll be back here to discuss it with them later...Aren't you two kind of young to be private investigators?"

"Yes, but our augmentations are best-fitted to the assignment. We used them to our best ability to avoid collateral."

* * *

After they'd returned to Sarif's headquarters, he had them report to Darrow's office where another reward was waiting for them.

"These look...good." Shinji felt the leather trenchcoat he'd been given.

"And your sizes match. For both of you, the shoes are made with extra-soft soles, quieting your steps even further. The coat can be worn over a ballistic vest without being distorted or stretched, so you can conceal your protection. Rei, both pieces of your outfit has been woven from a specialized bullet-resistant fabric. It's designed to inhibit anything under a rifle round without the need of a vest _and_ won't inhibit your movement."

Rei stepped into a restroom to change into the long-sleeved minidress and leggings...it was a heavy outfit, and she could feel the density and tightness of the fabric, but Darrow was right. It was small-caliber resistant, and combine the armor with the internal medical augmentations both of them had, they could take a lot of injury and keep fighting.

* * *

A/N: For the clothing, I decided on JC from DX1 for Shinji and (female)Alex Denton from DX2 for Rei.


	9. We Don't Dance

Answers: Nurse Vodka: Don't worry. Being confusing is standard stuff, here. Just so you know, Deus Ex is the _only_ thing more paranoid and confusing than Evangelion...  
iayaoyas (did i spell that right?): I answered your comment with a PM, but again, thanks for that awesome review!

* * *

Chapter 9: We Don't Dance

* * *

Shinji and Rei found themselves standing inside two chambers inside Sarif's augmentation research laboratories. They stood on a central platform housed by a large backbone tower that branched into three semicircular ribs, stacked one atop the others. Bright lights shone from the arms and lit every square inch of their teenage frames.

"Hey Doc, why are we standing in what looks like a radiation chamber?"

"This is a nanorecorder. It's going to download the footage from your last engagement directly from the nanites' databanks."

Shinji wasn't impressed. "What if I told you that I've got pretty strong opinions about having memories recorded?"

Darrow sighed. This was one of the more common ethical complaints he had to put up with. "We can't copy your 'memories,' Shinji. We are downloading the video from the infiltration-"

"Here's a secret. NERV _can_, and I completely wrecked our HQ because of it, so don't think about touching anything that isn't relevant."

"Shinji," Rei began, "that is over and done, now. There's no need to bring back those circumstances."

There are three people in the world who can control Shinij while he's angry, and Rei is the best choice. He looked at her and quieted down.

"You should both feel the download starting now. The direct connection to the nanorecorder should bypass the disorientation that comes from the infolink's bandwidth limitations."

"Then this won't be like the baseball game?" Rei asked him.

"Exactly. In the future, we shouldn't even need the chamber, but as of now, we have to work within the restraints built into your prototypes...Unit-00, Unit-01, downloading timestamped video from 'current time' to the previous 12 hours...

...How are you two feeling."

"Like my sinuses are draining." Shinji answered.

"...I feel the same way...It is not as taxing as the remote download." Rei concurred.

Darrow covered his mouth and choked back a laugh as he watched the recorded infiltration. "Shinji, did you really shock a man while he-"

"Well, it worked, didn't it?"

* * *

"What the fuck, man! Where's my laptop?!" The gang boss shouted to himself as he scrambled around the office he claimed, trying to find his computer. He couldn't spend much time searching because his door burst open to reveal two SWAT cops in riot armor pouncing on him.

"Stay on him, Haas!"

The first of the two officers tackled him to the floor and held him there, while the other one cuffed and bound him. "No problem, Adam, this one was too easy."

"Busy couple of days for you punks." The ranking officer spoke. "Yesterday you get your asses kicked by a pair of four foot tall private eyes, today you get busted for...lets see here...Grand theft, Smuggling, attempted murder...and...ooh, possession of child pornography. The guys in General Population are going to love you for that one." Jensen dragged the bound Baller out where he saw his brothas on the ground with their hands on their heads, Jensen's SWAT team surrounding them.

* * *

"I wonder who Sarif ordered to tailor all these identical suits..." Shinji complained out loud as he packed his new wardrobe to be ready for their belated trip to Paris. They'd just received new attire purported to support their efforts in close-quarters-combat. Both teens now owned multiple facsimilies of the same outfit: Shinji was now the living embodiment of 'dark'. Dark sunglasses, dark trenchcoat concealing his new ballistic vests, dark cargo trousers, and dark silent boots. Rei now owned several dark blue sets of long-sleeved tunic dresses and leggings, all woven from ballistic carbon fabric. Like Shinji's footwear, her new shoes contained cushioned insoles, complementing their ambient noise suppression enhancements.

Kaji walked out into the apartment's living room and saw that the pair were adequately packed. "Misato does have a point about this one, kids. So far, all we have is a recording of a voice telling us to go to Paris. We could easily be walking into a trap. If you want to back out-"

"There's no incentive to retire now, Inspector Kaji."

"Then go to the bathroom before we take off, because we're flying non stop. We just got clearance to pick up fuel from a KC-10 over the Atlantic."

* * *

The gang boss found himself cuffed to a table that had been bolted to the floor. The desk chair was hard and cold, and he knew that he was in one of the Detroit precincts, just not _which_ one. The cop that arrested him entered the interrogation room.

"Which one do you want to start with, punk? The Neurop theft, the child porn, or the gunrunning."

"It's business, man. The Bangers want the Neurop, we've gotta keep them down. They got too much power, somebody gotta knock them down a peg."

"And shooting up a refrigerated hazardous materials van seemed like a good way to send the Bangers a message? You need to rethink your party planning. How about the weapons?"

"We don't haul that shit, cuz, we just buy it. Why don't you guys got this stuff, man? Detroit's gun control laws don't do shit. You could have any one of them loads, just walk out at night, somebody'll take your money for one."

"They don't generally let us get away with that sort of thing. Now for the last one, where'd you get the images? Some of them were a bit much, even for you scum."

"Shit, man, I don't know where they came from, I just googled 'hot chicks', and that's what came up. I saved the ones that looked good."

"Well those pictures are going to be hard to get you out of court...I'm seeing 15 to 25, probably no parole...Good behavior's probably out, too."

"Damn pigs, you all the same."

* * *

10 hours after takeoff, Champs-Élysées, Paris

The VTOL, which was running on vapors at this point, set down on top of one of the many condominium buildings in this Paris social district. Kaji opened the passenger hatch for the two teens and then lifted away to head to de Gaulle to buy desperately-needed jet fuel. He radioed the two soon after he left.

"The good news is that we're in one of the most culturally complete, beautiful cities in the world. The bad news is that we're in a city of 12 million people. I'm going to be sitting on de Gaulle International's tarmac for a few hours waiting for service. You two act like any of the other million oblivious tourists in the city; try finding a library or WiFi café to research Illuminati or SEELE ties to France, and Paris in particular. Give me an inventory, just to check up."

"Kaji, Shinji here. I've got my NERV and Sarif cards, Zenith 10 mil, pepper gun that needs fluid, and Tazer...it needs several hours on a wall charger. Uhh, the sword is in my luggage compartment."

"The same for me, Inspector Kaji. My personal effects, the knife I took from the gang hideout, and firearm are all ready, but I need to restock my nonlethal implements."

"Okay you two, you didn't hear this from me, but make a little side trip to the subway stations...there's usually a motley collection of unlikeables down there who'll sell you the kinds of stuff you won't find in the boutiques." They watched as their transportation headed off through the various helicopter traffic.

"Shinji..."

"Yes, Rei?"

"I've never concerned myself with immersion in other cultures or really had a desire to travel, for obvious reasons, but now..._We're in Paris._"

Shinji thought about what she meant. =...She shouldn't really be alive right now...If my bastard father succeeded, none of us would...We need to make this trip count. = "So...after converting them from Yen, Rei, I've got 65,000 UN Credits in my NERV account, what about you?"

"Over 300,000."

"What."

Shinji's facial expression was...amusing, to say the least.

"I've been receiving the 350,000 Yen monthly stipend since I was created, Shinji. With roughly 8 years of pay, which I rarely spend...and the UN Credit is worth a value somewhere in between one Dollar and one Euro."

"Right. Well, you have a very good point. We _are_ in Paris, and we only know that _somebody_ is here, and we're looking for them." He slipped an arm around her waist. "Maybe we could take our time finding them."

They made their way through the janitor's access from the roof to the top floor of this particular building and began descending the long spiral staircase to the ground floor and the streets of Paris.

"Kaji." Shinji opened a radio channel as they stepped down. "Do we need to buy a few nights?"

"I don't know, yet. It may be safe to, but we still don't have that much intelligence. You two could be searching for the rest of your lives."

"Really," came Shinji's flat expression.

"I'm being facetious. You two could be finished by tonight, or you could get knocked off by more hitmen. Just saying."

"So helpful, jet man, so helpful." Shinji cut his radio. "Well, Rei, we essentially have free reign to do whatever we want, so..."

"I am kind of hungry..."

"Well, Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous tourist streets on the planet." They left the lobby of the building they arrived on top of. "Some of the recipes I know come from the café's around here. They turned out and began walking the street, seeing the Arc de Triomphe and the skyscrapers of La Defense rising from the land several kilometers before them. Quite a few Parisians turned their heads to get a double-take at the dark and mysteriously dressed young man holding the attractive girl with blue hair.

"It has been five, nearly six months since I destroyed Unit-00." Rei said, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Yeah, Rei?"

"Even when we were in New York, I didn't think about it...The Evas are infinitely strong, bipedal creatures, yet approaching the Arc, or knowing that we're in the home of the Eiffel Tower, constructed over 250 years ago, before we had the benefits of Computer Modeled Design or nanometer-accurate components...It makes me feel small."

"Sure, architecture and engineering are hundreds of years old...Mr. Dowd mentioned that. But think about it; Dr. Akagi told me that she thinks NERV is the greatest achievement in history. They built the Evas, they built the MAGI, NERV...well, they made you. You're the first human born of research and science." Shinji started blushing deep red when he thought about what he'd say next. "You're more important than anything people have ever 'built'. Even the Evas can't think and...feel...like you can. They have to have somebody, essentially willing to be sacrificed, bonded to it...You were complete from the beginning-"

"No, Shinji, I had to have a soul bonded to me, as well..."

"Okay, fine, you're Lillith. That means that we can't create a 'soul' yet...I'm sure a mad scientist like Ritsuko is already working on it. No matter what, it only proves my point. Think about what you represent now...You're completely identical to a person that's been, you know...born."

"Shinji..." Rei felt like she was floating in his arms. "Calling me normal, calling me 'natural'...it's the most meaningful compliment I've ever received."

It's not uncommon -in fact, it's an hourly occurrence- to see a young couple caught up in a kiss on the Paris sidewalks.

* * *

"Le Foquet's?" Rei read the hanging sign as Shinij walked her up to the hotel's street entrance.

"It's one of the places that has recipes I've written down. Their website said they're expensive, but we're basically rich, so..." The wait staff seated the young couple.

= Okay...how do I do this...Record and Translate... = His eyes photographed the French-language menu and converted it into two files in his database, one in English and one in Japanese. Shinji read them and ordered a single Sole meunière and prawns, and the two teens split the marinated oceanfish plate.

"Just wondering, Rei...You're finished with Ritsuko's medicine and diet routine from, you know, the JSDF thing. You don't object to eating meat at all anymore?"

"I do so for my strength, Shinji. I still believe in protecting all living things; and using food as a political soapbox like a militant vegan would is embarrassing."

"So...I guess what we'll do first is send Kaworu a message asking him about SEELE and the Illuminati in Paris, and then what?"

"We should read up on French history...It is an excuse to visit the Louvre."

Their bill came. "Yeah, it's expensive. I'm glad we can afford it."

They entered the nearest subway station to board the Paris Yellow Line train, to take them to the historic French fortress and museum. Shinji tripped over a tall blonde woman's feet as he entered the train. A testament to his enhanced reflexes, he rolled to a defensive stance and -somewhat on edge, considering his new line of work- scanned around the train for any hint of violent intent. The woman stood and helped him up, apologizing profusely in heavily-French accented English.

"Excuse me, ma'am...How did you know I spoke English and not French?"

"You're clearly not from around here, darling. Since most travelers are either Brits or Yanks, I just guessed."

"We're Japanese. We simply study intensely." The girl he was traveling with answered.

"Well, what are the two of you doing in Paris?"

"As a matter of fact, studying. We're on our way to the Louvre."

"Dressed in all this?" She waved over Shinji's mostly black clothing. "And those sunglasses? I'd have guessed you were going to La Porte de l'Enfer."

Shinji and Rei's translation software wrote out the name. "Why would we be going to 'The Gates of Hell'?"

"Because it's the hottest club in Paris, and your handsome friend would fit right in. He's got the brooding leather biker look down perfectly. And you, in that hemline and those tights, I hope he can fight, because he'll have to get in between you and every hot stud in the house."

"What's the entry fee?"

"Invitation only." She handed each teen a card with the club's logo and its address. "Those'll get you in."

"Well, thank you...we think..." The woman departed at the next stop. Shinji and Rei rode on to the Louvre's station.

"So...should we just start poking around corners to find Kaji's 'unmentionable' salesmen?"

"I have a more efficient solution, Shinji." Rei took off her sunglasses and intently gazed around the station. "I see outlines of metal crates and a human profile in a storage room behind the ticket desk...Hmm, Shinji, you'll have to strike the ticket agent on the neck, as you did last time."

"Are you sure this is a black market shop and not just a closet?"

"No reason for a janitor to have crates matching the universal 7.62 NATO bulk storage form factor."

Shinji slipped around the ticket turnstiles and crept in to the ticket agent's booth, striking the young woman on her Vagus nerve. She fell slack, unconscious. Rei took a hair pin from her bag and a paperclip from the desk, Shinji drew his pistol and covered the door as she worked the pins in the lock. Several lifted pins later, she manipulated the slide on the door and they looked in on the surprised gunrunner and his stash.

"What's the rent to use this place?" Shinji smirked as he kept his firearm trained on the 'honest entrepreneur'.

"Free, as long as I keep the cops paid off. And that's about as far as I'll go...some CIA lunatic had his daughter kidnapped a few years ago. He killed like 40 Arab guys when he found out they had her. Did a real number to one of them, stabbed spikes in his legs and wired him up to some apartment building's electric lights. You two're just here to talk, apparently."

"We're here to see what you've got. We need pepper cartridges and Tazer batteries. We'll look at your ammunition stock, too."

He matched the various pepper canisters he had to their standard private security models and swapped the batteries in their Tazers.

"Just run your card. Don't worry about being tracked. The account runs through Boulangerie Centrale, a café just a few blocks from here. Check it out, tell them the subway clerk sent you and they'll get out the Zyme stock."

"Zyme?"

"You don't know? It's the newest Acid. Drop a vial and the world slows down and you speed up! It's like being the Flash, great for getting out of situations faster than you got in."

"Anything else for two kids who might want to make some noise?" Shinji asked.

"We'll I don't have any mods for those pistols that you don't already have...how many rounds you carrying?"

"Between the two of us...148 armor piercing."

"150 UN credits for 50 more."

"Deal."

"As a secret...I've got a targeting computer for an FR-27 if you can get ahold of one. It causes the flechettes it fires to curve into their targets. Lethal as the Reaper himself."

"If I had one," Shinji said. "I'd think about it."

"How about two White Phosphorous grenades? 1000 each."

Shinji's eyes widened. "Also a deal."

They ascended the flight of stairs to the surface and gazed upon the glass pyramid that dominates the courtyard before the museum.

"Hey Rei...Have I seen something like that, before?" Shinji started dumbly giggling at the thought.

"Yes, it does look like NERV HQ, and you aren't going to get a reaction out of me because of it." She flatly answered him.

They entered the museum and walked the galleries, forgoing the guided tour to remain relatively isolated. The pair would occasionally stop to more closely inspect an artifact, and spent quite the length of time in the Egyptian Antiquities Exhibit.

"So what is it with the Illuminati and Egyptian Icons?" Shinji asked Rei as they looked over a model of the Sphinx. "Pyramids, Obelisks, Eagles and Lions...Think about us, NERV's HQ offices are pyramids..."

"References to gods and divinity. Rather indicative of SEELE's...and Gendo Ikari's quest for godhood, when you consider it."

"Yeah. My dad went all the way with Instrumentality, right up until it killed him...If you hadn't awakened Lillith and Kaworu and Mari hadn't Lanced her, then SEELE would still be trying to cause an Impact themselves, wouldn't they?"

"And since we stopped them from completing their goal, they pursue and attack us. Yes, Shinji. Sarif Industries' enhancements will allow us to challenge any attacker. Our engagements at the shipyard and the gang territory prove that."

"Yeah. But there's always somebody better...When we're training, you beat me _constantly_...When we were fighting, Asuka and then Mari were the best...Hell, Mari's the one that killed Lillith..."

"We are using the only two existing prototypes of the next generation of human performance enhancements. We have an exclusive advantage, Shinji. Do not discount that."

Rei turned towards a downwards staircase. This led to the lower wing of the museum, exhibiting the surviving layout of the Louvre's original purpose, the stone fortress of the 16 and 1700's. This sector of the museum was much less densely populated, and the lack of people present would result in no awkward stares at the girl who appeared to be talking to her own head when Rei opened a radio channel to Kaworu.

"Nagisa. Ayanami checking in."

"We've got you, Rei. How are the two of you?"

"The Louvre is quiet, fortunately. What are the Parisian Illuminati or SEELE connections?"

"It would be easier to ask who _aren't_ the Parisian Illuminati connections. The movement was -founded- in the city after the French Revolution, but most of the Parisian families prefer to remain behind the scenes and work to their own fortunes over influencing world events...I don't have any real identification for Illuminati leadership in Paris...You two keep researching."

"That we will." She turned to Shinji. "We need to focus our efforts...According to Kaworu, Paris is the birthplace of the Illuminati."

"Crap, and I wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower before we go get embroiled in the conspiracy." He checked the time. "It's past 5 PM, here. We spent most of the day asleep on the plane...The Paris Library will probably already be closed..." Shinji's hands idly felt through his various pockets. = Handgun, Tazer and pepper, grenades -those are gonna be fun, hey, the club tickets! = "Rei, that lady did give us those club tickets..."

"I'm not fond of crowds, Shinji, but if you think it'll be enjoyable, I have no problem attending."

"Okay, one more stop before we head there..." He began walking in the direction away from the subway station.

* * *

"Shinji, there appears to be no one here..."

"I don't get this. The guy said to come to Boulangerie Centrale, and the doors were open, but..." He rang the small service bell. "Looks like nobody's home-"

He noticed that an oven close to the cash register was labeled as 'ON', yet it gave out a cold sensation.

"Rei, why would you disguise a refrigerator as an oven?"

"To stop people from opening it..." She lifted the door to the cooking area and found six small, clear vials of liquid. "This must be the Zyme stash..." She took all six vials and they made themselves scarce.

* * *

They took their time getting to and from the bakery. By the time they'd reached Champs-Élysées, it was past 7 PM. They followed the directions to La Porte de l'Enfer and walked up to the bouncer at the door. Shinji and Rei held up their cards.

"Invitation only, right?"

The bouncer checked the passes and nodded, opening the door and bowing slightly to Rei. A thumping beat welcomed them as they walked through the long entryway to the dance floor, where they saw singles and pairs dancing on the floor with a risqué (and rather short) cage dancer up high in the center. She wore what amounted to boots and a glossy leather one-piece swimsuit, had her hair up in a net, and was wearing a Greek theatre smile mask, obscuring her head and face. She turned to them as they entered the room and gave Shinji a once-over. She spoke strangely-accented French to them, which their software then translated. "Dark glasses, dark jacket, that scowl on your face...You look like you'll fit right in, stud. Why don't you dump that boring mess beside you, climb up in here with me, and we'll dance the _year_ away."

Rei put a hand over Shinji's mouth and spoke for him. "He and I do (not) dance, and if you continue making passes at him, I will climb up there and show you what I will do."

"Ooh, is he on the leash, you putting him in the doghouse, bitch?"

"I'll ignore that insult and instead tell you that I've imagined him wearing a collar and a leash, before; I like that image. It doesn't mean I control him or his choices."

"Then why not let him choose, now?"

"Ohh, no." Shinji cut in. "I'm not walking in to this catfight. Look, you're pretty, but I'm in a long-term relationship, and I'm loyal to my girlfriend."

A tall blonde woman watched the trio's banter from behind her drink at a table in a darkened alcove.

Shinji and Rei pulled away from the predatory girl and walked the club, seeing the three bars, the dark dining area, and the 'private space' upstairs where the partiers and wait staff don't ask too many questions.

Shinji had just approached the DJ when the front doors to the club exploded and a platoon-sized group of unnaturally pale-skinned, almost identical looking men and women wearing black suits and sunglasses marched into the club and began summarily shooting the bouncers and club security.

"IDENTIFY HIGH-VALUE TARGETS." Came the inhuman voice of one of the attackers.

Terrified partiers dove to the floor. Some of them kicked over tables, while others scrambled behind the bars as the bouncers tried to fight back with brass knuckles and Tazers, and were effortlessly cut down by the assault rifle fire from the invaders.

Rei's radio roared to life with Shinji's voice. "REI! I don't know what the hell is happening, but we've got to answer these bastards!" She ducked into a shadowy corner near a restroom and loaded her handgun as she counted 19 of these anonymous murderers now moving through the facility and targeting any person that showed signs of resistance.

"Shinji, enable everything related to combat; Arm Strength, Running Speed, Muscular Density, turn them all on!" Rei ducked out of the shadow and opened fire on one of the Agents...he took three rounds to his chest and turned to look at her.

"HIGH VALUE TARGET CONFIRMED." The Agent raised his PMC-issue FR-27, only for Rei to whip out her knife from one of her outfit's compartments and stab the Agent through his wrist, severing the primary nerve in his hand, causing it to go slack and drop the rifle. She shot him once more in the chest and the Agent fell backwards...and his body exploded in a shower of entrails. Rei was blown backwards, landing hard on a table. She received several small shrapnel impacts and some blunt trauma which her nanites quickly extracted and relieved.

"Shinji. These attackers aren't normal soldiers. They have pain-tolerance techniques and a suicide bomb. Use extreme caution!"

The dancer yelled to the DJ, who was cowering behind his deck. "These assholes still have to communicate! Make some noise and drown them out!"

The DJ scrambled up to crank the volume up to the system's max and pressed play on a random song.

The speaker system throughout the club exploded with a rapid drumbeat, and a metal guitar screamed out across the amplifiers.

* * *

Too late, the melody is over, the joke seems to be on me?  
Cause I'm the one not laughing, down here on the floor.  
Deflate the mystery of living, in the most heartless fashion I could ever imagine...No pretense of decor!

* * *

Shinji was below the DJ's sound deck when the shooting started and Rei called him from across the premises. He smirked an evil grin as he pulled one of the WP Grenades from his coat.

"ALL YOU PARTIERS GET DOWN!" He threw the grenade towards a cluster of three Agents, who suffered the burst of the burning particles and were now drenched in fire...The explosion didn't last long, though, and the Agents emerged burned and disfigured, but now all three approached Shinji.

= This is stupid! = He pulled his weapon and placed three shots in the center Agent's head, killing him and triggering his suicide switch. The explosion killed and triggered the two Agents to his left and right, resulting in fire and chunks of men getting thrown across the floor.

* * *

With me, disaster finds a playfield, love seems to draw dark, twisted pleasure tearing at me;  
Cause I can't let you go...  
Mercy, like water in a desert, shine through my memory like jewelry in the sun...  
Where are you now?

* * *

Rei now had her composure back, and she took one of the vials and drank the contents...

...the world moved at a pace comparable to 'sloth' and she could visually track the rounds currently flying from Shinji's firearm. She began running at her power-assisted speed and emptied her magazine into the group of Agents, placing multiple precise shots per head into four of them. She sprinted away as their suicide bombs exploded.

Her plan was a good one, until she collapsed to her knees behind a desk and coughed up significant amounts of phlegm as the Zyme's effect wore off and she was reduced to the drug crash, but it wasn't debilitating enough to stop a tall blonde woman from watching her performance and become extremely impressed.

* * *

Another place and time; without a great divide; and we could be flying deadly high!  
I'll sell my soul to Dream You Wide Awake!  
Another place and time without a warning sign, and we could be Dying Angel Style!  
I'll sell my soul to Dream You Wide Awake!

* * *

By now, Shinji has learned the durability of these Agents, and he's gotten several of them to engage him. He ducked down below several upturned tables as he throws his other grenade into a group of three more. The fire that engulfs them caused them to panic and attempt to douse the flames as Shinji emerges from his cover and shoots the three of them in their heads, several times. The suicide explosions add even more to the mess...

* * *

It's like I'm racing to the sun! Blindly face the blazing gun!  
Cause I'm afraid I will be left here without you!  
Like I'm racing not to run! Give more when I have none!  
Cause I'm afraid I will be left here without you...wide awake...

* * *

Rei picked up the rifle dropped by her first kill, and judging it to be adequate, strength-jumped from a table to mantle up and over the walkway railing to the upper dance floor to get a long-range advantage. The amount of injury they had to take to kill was incredible, and she had to put several bursts of fire into each of her next four kills' heads before they'd fall and explode. Too much, in fact.

"Empty magazine...Automatic fire is not economical against these opponents."

* * *

Another place and time; without a great divide; and we could be flying deadly high!  
I'll sell my soul to Dream You Wide Awake!  
Another place and time without a warning sign, and we could be Dying Angel Style!  
I'll sell my soul to Dream You Wide Awake!

* * *

Shinji saw this standoff as an opportunity to take one of the three Zyme vials Rei had given him. The taste burned on his tongue, but the speed and power he felt more than made up for it. He began jumping around and skidding through the three remaining Agents, placing shots when the opportunity presented itself. He detonated the first suicide Agent and the final two pursued him into a cluster of tables. When the bullets pierced their reinforced skulls, he was too close to the impediments and was blown through a table, landing with severe blunt trauma on his back. Rei rushed down the stairs to his side.

"Why is his medical support not enabling itself?!"

"Because he has too little power remaining. You have the same architecture as he does, correct?" The blonde woman appeared behind Rei.

"Yes ma'am."

"Then roll him over onto his chest and place your hands on his upper and lower vertebrae."

Rei complied and cringed as she felt the electric shock traveling through her body into Shinji's. She gently extracted some of the splinters of wooden table and watched as his wounds closed themselves. His eyes shot open and he coughed bits of blood before becoming coherent again. He rolled back onto his side and looked up to Rei. "You're so beautiful, you know that?" He said before closing his eyes and passing out.

* * *

I'll dream you, I'll dream you, I'll dream you; Wide Awake!  
I'll dream you, I'll dream you, I'll dream you; Wide Awake...wide awake...

* * *

"It's okay. He just needs that sleep, don't worry about him."

Rei turned to the woman. "The subway train! You're-"

"Let me introduce myself. Elizabeth DuClaire, World Health Organization."

"Rei Ayanami." She turned to her dazed and sleeping boyfriend. "Shinji Ikari."

"Oh, I'm well aware!" She laughed. "I've been looking forward to seeing the nano-augmented Units in action. James was most impressed with the two of you, and now, so am I."

The cage dancer walked up to the small group. "Well now, I never would've expected you two to know how to kill so well..."

Rei turned to her. "Really, there's no reason to continue acting like you don't already know us, and that costume is a bit much, isn't it?"

The dancer removed her mask, smirked, and let her long red hair tumble down behind her. "Hey Wondergirl."

* * *

A/N: My favorite enemy units in DX1 and DX2 were the MJ12/Illuminati elite soldiers. Since they were bullet sponges, you'd need to use more effictive methods to take them out, my favorite method was always the 'incendiary crossbow bolts'.

The awesome shootout music was Poets of the Fall (easily the best band ever formed) Dreaming Wide Awake. Look them up on itunes/amazon


	10. DuClaire Chateau

A/N: The house's layout is the exact map from DX1,  
Pull up youtube: /watch?v=uX0hU7jQ5O4  
The greatest music ever made, for the greatest level ever made, from the greatest game ever made.

* * *

Chapter 10: DuClaire Chateau

* * *

"Isn't leatherhead there kind of heavy, Wondergirl?"

"My muscles are augmented."

"What?"

"...I'll explain later."

A military VTOL isn't something Parisians see on the city streets very often. This particular night, the street was blocked by the NERV aircraft that just put down directly in front of La Porte de l'Enfer to meet a tall, blonde adult woman, two teenage girls, and one teenage boy who was sleeping like a log and being carried by the girl with blue hair. The redheaded girl helped the blue one awkwardly load Shinji Ikari into the aircraft, at roughly the same time as a mustached man in a white suit and tie emerged from the club's entrance and caught up to the group.

"Wait!" He caught Elizabeth DuClaire and Asuka Soryu as Rei got Shinji comfortable and belted him down safely. "So, Beth, these are the two that you and your undercover friend have been searching for?"

"Yes they are, and you can see why."

"I don't know why my nightclub was targeted, but those two...kids...just put down an invasion."

"It was targeted because I'm not the only one looking for them. I'm getting them out of the public eye for that very reason."

"Well, before you take off, forward this 2000 credit gratuity to their credit accounts."

"2000, that's it? These kids just took down an army!"

"I can't afford to haggle. Yes, I appreciate what they did, but I have to settle things with my lawyers, clean up the blood all over my club, repair the damages, bullet holes and explosion craters-"

"Fine. I'll make sure they get it. Thanks for the VIP passes, by the way." She climbed into the VTOL taking a seat beside Asuka as Rei instructed Kaji to fly to Ms. DuClaire's destination.

* * *

The VTOL set down in the front courtyard of the majestic Chateau DuClaire, a thirteenth-century estate of the French nobility that the DuClaire family had acquired after the Second World War, and Kaji waved them on ahead as he went through the process of shutting down the complex aircraft to the point of disabling its electrical system, ensuring its locator beacon would not broadcast. Beth and Asuka disembarked and waited for Rei to assist a conscious but delirious Shinji out of the aircraft, for him to weakly lean against her as she slowly walked him towards the thick hardwood doors of the Chateau's entry hall.

Something Asuka would have never expected Rei to do, the blue-haired girl complimented the estate as the quartet approached the hall -a testament to her developed and more socially open personality.

"This home, it feels almost...magical. The only person I know with this wealth or sophistication was the late Gendo Ikari. At his death, neither I nor Shinji were to inherit any of his wealth, it all went back to NERV. Despite his millions, he lived a spartan, austere lifestyle. He raised me to do the same, and Shinji-" She shifted his weight in her arms, "is naturally frugal. Despite being stationed at NERV's primary headquarters, my 'apartment'-" her tongue burned when she mentioned the place she now hated, "was the definition of 'poverty'. I've never seen a place such as this."

Asuka cut in. "As a matter of fact, _I_ have. Being raised in the German countryside let me see the castles and fortresses of the Barons of the Counties."

Miss DuClaire smiled as she keyed open one of the massive double doors. "For a person as paranoid as me, this place _is_ a fortress. Everything is reinforced, the doors can hold up to cannon fire, the windows are barred and can be locked in place, and the walls are bomb-resistant. When your family is one of the most prominent of the Illuminati, you quickly militarize everything you own...you'll see what I mean a little while from now."

Before the quartet entered, Asuka spoke up. "Okay, Beth. I'm grateful that you picked me up from that hospital, but I think I deserve to know why, over the last two weeks, I've been hearing the word 'Illuminati' thrown around like a baseball."

Beth rubbed her temples in exasperation at the fiery redhead. "Because, Asuka, you are now in the employ of one of the Illuminati's ruling parties. I brought you out of Germany to keep you safe from SEELE's assassins. Shinji and Rei are already used to it after their meeting with James Dowd. That old sod is certainly a little loose in the head, but he's practically aware of every transaction of currency, every act of government, and every mobilization of force on the planet. _That_ is what the Illuminati is, Asuka, awareness. The rifle round you were shot with turns out to be what saved your life. If you were hit by a fragmentation round or a hollow point, well, you wouldn't be here wearing that silly costume, would you?" Beth quipped, referencing Asuka's status as an undercover dancer.

The word 'shot' caused Shinji to force his eyes open and jump to his feet, breaking out of Rei's grasp. "Asuka!? Shot!? What happened!?"

"Calm down, Idiot." She answered him. She rolled down one shoulder strap of her suit, showing the scarring from the skin graft that now covered the round's entry wound. "I've got another one of these on my left side, hence the one-piece and not a top and bottom combo."

Beth entered at this point, explaining this reunion to Shinji and Rei. "When the Illuminati got wind of the attempt on Miss Soryu's life, we stepped in and took her under our protection. I appeared at Charite Hospital and paid her treatment in full, on the grounds that Mr. and Mrs. Soryu allow me to have her until the attackers are brought to justice. After you two were configured at Sarif Industries, the 'brought to justice' part became _your_ job...That reminds me. The dining room and kitchen are this way." She entered the house and turned right moving from the great hall to the dining area. Asuka and Rei followed her.

Rei and Shinji noticed the instrumental music that began playing throughout the house after Beth entered. It was a piano piece that began slow and subdued, but quickly picked up tempo as it became a synthesized electronic beat. It sounded alien and otherworldly, but still very inviting.

"I can think of two kids who critically require their synthetic dietary supplements." Beth called from her kitchen. She regarded the maid of the house, instructing her to prepare two servings of Coq au Vin for herself and the redheaded guest, before bringing out a standard array of Cyberboost nutrition. Rei helped Shinji into a seat and sat beside him while Beth mixed their drinks. The pair ate while she resumed her explanation.

"For my day job, I'm an assistant administrator of the French office for the World Health Organization. One of the WHO's primary purposes is standardization of treatment, which means ensuring that all processes for medication, surgery, or therapy are concurrent across regions and nations. You two are (not) mechanically augmented, so you don't fall under the standard treatment for cybernetics. Technically, your augmentations don't even exist, you aren't Neuropazyne users despite the billions of artificial implants inside you, and you've never been to a LIMB clinic. Sarif are decades ahead of their time in that respect, _but_ they can only create a single biocontroller and a single population of nanites in a production run. They can't yet mass produce them, and that's what's keeping them from putting these nano augmentations of yours on the market. No supply."

"Wait wait wait-" Asuka interjected. "You people keep saying 'augmented'. Augmented means you're using extra equipment to give you more power during a task. Shinji and Rei don't have any prosthetic limbs."

"Sunglasses, you two."

Shinji and Rei smirked to one another. The sunglasses came off and Asuka screamed.

"THE EYES! Oh My God the EYES-" * SLAP *

"Calm down Asuka." Beth ensured the girl got her composure. "Between the three of you, you're the lucky one. Shinji and Rei were nearly killed in a missile strike. Nanite reconstructive surgery is what saved their lives. It's also what killed Versalife's physiopharmaceutical assassins."

"Fizzy O'whatsit? The assholes at the club?"

"As opposed to cybernetic limbs, or Shinji and Rei's experimental injections, the physiopharmaceutical operatives use a combination of strength training and military drilling, steroids and opiates, chemical and biological immunizations, and brainwashing to create an inhuman killing machine capable of gunning down a bunch of cowering dancers in a club. I had no idea that they'd been deployed yet. If Shinji and Rei hadn't been configured as two nano-augmented-"

"How did _you_ know about them?"

"Because SEELE-02 is the one enabling them. Bob Page, only 29 years old, so far, already owns Page Industries _and _Versalife pharmaceuticals. He uses Page Industries' security services to train the agents and Versalife's drugs to weaponize them."

Rei asked the next question. "How are you and Dowd certain Page is SEELE-02?"

"Simple, sweetheart: I am SEELE-03." Shinji and Rei went silent.

* CLICK * A handgun was loaded and Kaji walked into the dining room.

"You really shouldn't say things like that when I'm within earshot."

"Finished making your bird go dark? Put it down, love. I have no intention of harming Shinji, Rei, or Asuka. Do you not think the Illuminati has somebody inside every rogue organization on this sick and depraved _planet_?"

"And you expect me to believe you're a double agent just from your own words?"

"You've been happily doing my bidding ever since I intercepted Shinji and Rei on that subway train. That's right, Shinji stumbling all over me was planned from the beginning. As was Asuka sending an anonymous, untraceable tip to NERV headquarters. If I wanted to kill you, Shinji, or Rei...I would've had it done _long_ ago. So, with that unpleasantry out of the way, let's get cooperative, shall we?"

"Fine. Why are you helping _us_?"

"Ah yes, the wonderful 'why'. I'd thought you'd never ask. The answer is simple: payment for services rendered. I am an Illuminatus embedded in SEELE to prevent it from completing its Singularity, and NERV is the organization to do the job. All I ask in return for the Illuminati's support is...a daughter."

Asuka went wide eyed. "Look, sorry, but I'm not leaving my dad-"

"I'm not trying to keep _you_ Asuka. I plucked you from that hospital to protect you from SEELE, but I am (not) adopting anybody." She turned to Rei. Shinji noticed this.

"She's not up for adoption, either!"

"When did I say I _wanted_ to adopt anybody?" The implication dawned on Shinji, who tried to play it off.

"Then why look at Rei? She doesn't have any sisters or anything...Why don't you and Kaji just-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, easy there kiddo!" Kaji cut him off and Beth continued.

"In the past, Rei had hundreds of sisters, didn't you, Rei?"

"...You know."

"Now don't give me that look. Have I acted like that's a bad thing? Have I treated you like you're less than a person?"

"Beth, what the hell is going on?!" Asuka was getting confused and frightened. She didn't like being either. All this SEELE-Illuminati whatever was grating on her nerves, and now Beth was implying that Wondergirl was one of a hundred? What?

"You don't know, Asuka? About Rei?"

"I know that she basically turned into Lillith! What else is there?"

"You never told her?"

"Shinji and I were...afraid of her reaction."

"Well the truth is out. So, Asuka, your friend is a human being grown in an LCL factory from the DNA of the Second Angel, Lillith. What do you think of that?"

"Wha-..."

"She was grown using cloning technology."

"Huh..." Asuka's eyes glazed over. Beth ignored the catatonic girl and turned to Rei and Kaji.

"I brought you out here to set the terms: NERV sees SEELE fall, and I get access to NERV's cloning facilities."

"_That's_ what you want?"

"Every relationship I've had has failed. I want a family to carry the DuClaire name, but no man has been right for me. If I can barter usage of NERV's laboratories in exchange for the Illuminati's power...I think you can see the outcome. The rest of the council will certainly be surprised when I introduce you."

"How did you know about me?"

"Didn't James tell you about the Illuminati's data collection?"

"Well, yeah." Shinji spoke up. "But he never acted like Rei was-"

"Why does he need to? Why do you or I need to? I don't care that Rei is synthetic, all I want is the ability to have a sweet little girl of my own, and NERV has the ability to do so _properly_."

Asuka spoke up. "This is the part where the somebody tells the villain that they're completely mad!"

"In the world you joined when you came here, Soryu, sanity will get you killed."

The maid collected their dishes and Beth led the group into the kitchen. She keyed open the stairway door down to her wine cellar and ordered the group inside.

"No way! This is probably some kind of medieval bondage torture!"

Kaji narrowed his eyes and slowly turned to Asuka. "How do _you_ know about 'bondage torture'?"

"Not from you, if that's what you're implying."

* * *

"This is..." Shinji stared around the holodeck in wonder.

"This is an identical environment to Gendo Ikari's communication system." Rei confirmed.

Beth had opened a secret wall in her wine cellar by removing a candle from a candelabra, and led the group up a flight of stairs to the massive computer monitoring network and communications station she had hidden in her bunker. She was seated at the desk in the room while she waited to activate the virtual communication channel to the other SEELE Units.

"The SEELE separatists all severed ties with the Illuminati when they decided that we were too selfless. Despite the Illuminati's wealth, we do not pursue much in the way of political power. SEELE's attempt with the Third Impact was a movement to raise themselves to emperors of the merged consciousness of humanity. Obviously, the Illuminati chose to put somebody on the inside, so I cut ties with Dowd and several other high voices of the Illuminati until SEELE was organized...After I joined them, I began recording and delivering the communications to Dowd to be dispersed to the other voices. Now their attacks on NERV illuminate their current plan, in this case, they plan to eliminate the force most likely to overpower them."

"And telling them that we're here will help, how?"

"You'll know your enemy. Lorenz is somewhere in Germany, but I don't know his current residence. Page is with Versalife at NERV branch 2, Zhao is high in her penthouse in Hengsha- she'll be the easiest one to pursue, next." She activated the console. The walls melted away and the desk, with Beth and her company, was surrounded with towering stone slabs, each illuminated with the snake and apple, SEELE's mark.

* * *

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "You have called an emergency meeting. Why?"

"Because, Lorenz, I'm afraid there's been an emergency change of plans."

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "You just violated our policy of anonymity. You will (not) refer to any of us by name."

"Well then, it's a good thing that I don't ever follow your rules."

SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "You are placing yourself in grave danger by speaking above your place."

"Ask Bob how much danger we were in, tonight. His performance-enhanced assassins didn't stand a chance against two experimental teenagers. Quite a bit of egg in the face for his physiopharmaceutical research, wasn't it?"

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "What is it you're going on about?"

"The two Nanite Biochips produced by one of NERV's mutual friends have been implanted and activated. I think you can guess who has them; they made a _mockery_ of your conditioned killers."

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "Three, I believe it is time that we end our association with you-"

"You'll have to try, corrupt bastard." A certain, augmented young man's voice cut off SEELE-02.

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "Ikari. Your father's failure will only be a prologue to your own."

"Is that a threat? I used to be pretty bad about those, but not anymore. Your _freaks_ might have morphine and brainwashing to blunt their fear of pain, but we have nerves of steel. Based on Miss Duclaire's advice, tell SEELE-05 that we're coming after her, next."

Beth cut the other shadow leaders off from a retort. "Shinji, I'm impressed. Your dossier placed you as a relative-"

"I'm not a coward anymore. I'd keep fighting even if I didn't have nanotech superpowers."

"Then what you need to do next is have your colleagues back at the GeoFront begin researching Hengsha and Tai-Yong Medical. A word of warning before you decide to attack Zhao, she uses mechanical augmentees for her security, but unlike Sarif's systems, they use brute strength over precision and stealth. I'll see to it that you get material support in China, but your opponents will be more dangerous than Versalife's assassins."

* * *

"What about now?"

"You rest." She ushered the group out of the holodeck and led them back through her electronics bunker and into her wine cellar. She paused for just a moment to select a bottle of Chablis and Crème de Cassis de Dijon. She reentered the kitchen and instructed the maid to ensure the selection was chilled, before organizing the arrangements for the evening. Out from the dining room into the great hall, she instructed Kaji to occupy the writing office to the left of the courtyard doors, using the sofa inside as his bed. She then took Shinji and Rei upstairs to her guest room, through the door immediately after the stairway's upper landing.

"Where will Asuka be staying? This guest room doesn't appear to have room for three..."

"With me. She's been staying in the master bedroom on a hideaway bed since I evacuated her from Germany. Now wash up, SEELE won't be getting any weaker as we sleep..."

* * *

Rei had finished in the nearby bathroom as Elizabeth walked in, carrying a paper-wrapped and string tied package.

"Sweetheart, you don't have anything comfortable, do you?"

Rei was confused for a moment. "...If you mean my clothing, then not really. Shinji and I packed multiple sets of personal protective equipment, but we never expected to be staying as guests in a mansion."

"Well, I was able to guess your sizes. Shinji doesn't like dry drinks does he?"

"I am not particularly aware..."

"Download the instructions to pour a glass of Kir, but use one third over one ninth...and try not to make too much noise tonight." The mysterious woman smirked to Rei as she opened the package...

"This is...-"

Beth softly cut her off. "This is what will ensure that boy of yours belongs to you for a _very_ long time..."

"Why are you giving me this?"

"Because I know your history, dear. I know how much that young man has improved your life. The Illuminati may be an ancient conspiracy, but we are a benevolent one, and the two of you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, yet again. Don't you think you two've earned some happiness, especially considering what you've survived, even since coming here? Tell me, why are you still alive?"

"...Because Mr. Sarif and Dr. Darrow treated me."

"No, before that. When your bastard creator used you-"

"The other Children fought me...Shinji saved me after Lillith was killed."

"And? You do plan on keeping him for your own, don't you? Trust me, this will make you just as happy as it will make him."

* * *

Rei emerged from the bathroom and returned to the guest room, just as Shinji was thoroughly examining the cocktail ingredients that had been delivered to the room. He used various wines and liquors Misato owned in several of his recipes, but he had never held a 150 Euro bottle of wine, before, and now he was looking at it and its partner in a bowl of ice, along with two crystal glasses the maid delivered. He turned to Rei when she opened the door and saw...

"Oh my god-"

"I would seem Elizabeth had...this, as a gift, waiting for me. French women have little inhibition, it would seem..." Rei was now wearing a translucent sky-blue slip and thigh stockings...Shinji began coughing and sputtering as she walked past and opened the two bottles. "I don't understand why she is treating us so exquisitely, but she wants us to enjoy our stay...if this is supposed to be a bribe of sorts..."

Shinji was trying to pay attention, but was far too distracted by Rei's legs. "Ar-...are y-you really wearing that?"

Rei poured two samples of the cocktail, increasing the volume of blackcurrant liqueur to overcome the bitterness of the dry burgundy, herself not quite believing Ms. DuClaire's motivations for the evening. She tasted her glass, the dry white wine was bitter at the beginning, but the blackcurrant quickly sweetened the taste, resulting in a distinct range of flavor as she sampled.

"...Shinji." She handed him his glass. "I do hope you approve."

He drank his serving, looking her in her eyes. Those eyes, those red eyes, contrasted against the blue fabric and her blue hair. In fact, now that Rei was a blossoming young woman, her hair spread south, but was still vibrant blue in both locations. Shinji sputtered some more "...W-wonderful."

The music looped and continued.

She took his hand and led him to the queen-sized four poster bed.

"Rei...are you sure? I-If you don't want-

Rei, wait!

Rei, there's-there's no going back from this..."

"I know, Shinji...But...I want this..."

"Rei!

...Rei...

That-that feels amazing...Oh!

Rei...I love you."


	11. NERV Interlude

Chapter 11: NERV Interlude

* * *

The pre-dawn light delivered a pink hue over a sleeping girl's blue hair and pale shoulders, and the blanket covering her was mounded and vallied from her figure and the boy underneath her. Shinji opened his eyes, finding the trapped body heat uncomfortable, but not daring to move a centimeter away from the person occupying his first thoughts of the morning.

= I...I can't believe it...she's mine_-_...

...Oh, who the hell am I kidding, _I_ belong to _her_. = Of course, he wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

"Sh-...Shinji?" The lips against his cheek and the hair brushing his eyebrow and ear shifted and pulled away from him. She blinked several times before her vision focused on the face she was looking down at.

"I'm awake. Was I making noise, Rei? You can go back to sleep-"

"No, you weren't...I didn't sleep particularly well; my hips have been feeling sore."

"Oh, um," he blushed deep red when he realized he was the cause. He took the opportunity to massage his hands along her thighs. The fact that her nightwear ensemble was bottomless was very convenient for their night together. "Sorr-"

"Do not apologize, Shinji...It was thoroughly satisfying." She laid back down and slid her arms underneath his shoulders to hold him more closely, as her head conformed to the junction of his neck and shoulders, and he felt two very specific points press against his chest.

"Uh, uhh...I don't really know how to take a compliment like _that_..."

"Based on a comment I heard Misato make in the past," she kissed his neck before continuing; "she says the best way to follow up a session of lovemaking is to begin again."

"Uhh...We should probably get up, soon, instead...We're going to have a lot of work to do today."

"I do not understand your reluctance, Shinji. We are already sticky with body fluids, so there is no need to worry about cleaning up -twice- and the object prodding my waist tells me your body is willing..."

Shinji had never been more embarrassed in his life.

Suddenly, the door began pounding. Shinji and Rei shot alert,and Rei, marginally better dressed than Shinji, pulled the blanket up to their necks. Shinji groggily slid out from under his better half, tiptoed around the empty wine bottles and glasses on the floor, and reached for the pair of underwear and pants that Rei stripped him of and threw to the side of the room the night before. He approached the door and peered out to see Kaji wincing as he held a cell phone up to his ear, and Shinji could make out Misato's voice shouting unintelligibly into his ear as he tried to pacify her.

"Misato, so what?! They've been going out for more than half a year, _calm down._"

_'They're kids! You aren't even attempting to supervise them properly!'_

"It was two people -who are more mature than you are, by the way- in a consensual coupling."

_'How would you know?!'_

"Misato, I know because I trust Shinji not to mistreat Rei. I've seen him defend the planet, I've seen him stand up to his father and to Lorenz and Page, and I've seen him stand up _for_ you and Rei in the past. I'm not worried about them because those two _deserve_ to be trusted. Here." He looked to Shinji as he was peering out the door. "Sorry, kid, she's your problem, now."

Shinji gulped and timidly took the phone. "...Hello?"

"Well, I hope getting Rei knocked up was worth it, Shinji!"

"Misato, what do you mean 'knocked up'?"

"You forgot that those antennas in your underage heads transmit vital signs and GPS coordinates down to 9 decimal places! Guess what Shigeru noticed on his life-support terminal!"

"What?"

"He got a report detailing a massive increase in reproductive hormone levels, adrenaline, endorphins, and body temperature for both you and Rei. What do think _that_ represents?"

"Okay fine, Misato, we had sex, so what?! I love Rei and She loves me! And Kaji's right, she _is_ the most mature person I know!"

"A mature person would know that you don't have unprotected sex when you're being hunted by killers! You don't carry condoms when you're sneaking around hostile combatants! Now Rei's going to have a baby growing in her and it's going to die the next time she gets hurt."

"She won't get pregnant, Misato!"

"How would you know that, Shinji?!"

"Because she can't...it's a side-effect of the clone process..."

"You mean Rei is-"

"Yes, Misato. Didn't Ritsuko ever tell you?"

"No, she never mentioned it and I never asked. Is Rei still with you?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Give her the phone."

He walked over to the bed where she was still covered up, gave her the phone, and rolled his eyes as she answered.

"Colonel Katsuragi?"

"Forget the formalities, Rei. Pretty much everybody at NERV knows what happened because you two were still transmitting medical data as of last night."

"Oh. Apologies, ma'am."

"Why, Rei? You're more responsible than this."

"Why is there an objection? Intimacy is part of a relationship."

"'Intimacy' is saved for when you're ready. You two just walked out of _another_ shootout-"

"Shinji and I were ready."

"You two might think you're ready, you two might _feel_ ready, but what happens the next time you're on the job and you get distracted by your hormones?"

"Misato. Shinji and I have been distracted by our hormones since before the Twelfth Angel. Our relationship has never hurt our ability to fight. The Fifteenth Angel proved that it made us _stronger_."

"And what about you running around hostile locales with a baby bump?"

"That won't happen."

"...So it's true then?"

"Yes. I'm medically sterile. I'm not a perfect human, Misato."

"...Okay, Rei. I'm sorry I got snippy at you and Shinji...I just don't like seeing you and him as grown-ups yet..."

"The Eva Project required us to grow up a long time ago."

"I know, I know...It's just...you two are supposed to be _kids_. Listen, Rei...God I can't believe I'm discussing this, but do you know why I'm so overprotective of Shinji?"

"Because you feel responsible for the danger he's in."

"That's not the only reason...Shinji...and you and Asuka, to a lesser extent, are the only opportunity I'll ever have to have a child of my own. You and I have that in common, Rei."

"What? How? We are both sterile? I do (not) mean to be unsympathetic, but that seems awfully convenient..."

"You've never seen the scar I got in Antarctica, have you? Shinji has, on a couple of occasions. It covers my entire waist and chest and I have uterine damage from the explosion. I was rendered barren, so I kind of took Shinji as my own...Rei, I'm so sorry, I just don't like seeing another girl steal my little boy, and it's not just you, I promise. I'd be a snarling mother bear to any girl he meets. I just have to remember that he's in good hands with you."

Rei wiped a tear from her eye. "...Thank you, Misato. I appreciate your honesty, and your trust."

* * *

"You know, it's not polite to eavesdrop." Kaji smirked to Shinji as he leaned his ear on the door.

"I don't want Misato talking down to Rei-"

"Don't worry about her, Shinji. Rei can turn anything Misato says right back around to her. She's one of the smartest girls on the planet, and you know it." His face changed to an evil grin. "So, you've got to tell me. How was it?"

"KAJI! Really?! Come on, I mean...is this..."

He broke down laughing. "It's okay, Shinji, really. We're guys, and talking about our girlfriends is what we do...Here's a secret: Misato's not some overprotective, pure and holy mother like she's trying to be. She and I skipped an entire week of school so we could stay in bed when we were college freshmen. So I know all about her, inside and out."

Shinji was red-faced at the thought of Misato going that far for that long.

Kaji tried again. "So, did you at least enjoy it?"

He took a deep breath. "I...I don't know how to describe it...Sure it felt great, but...God, it's like...now, I'm so in love with Rei that I don't know what to do with myself..." He swooned as he leaned back against the door.

"Of course you know what you need to do, Shinji. Keep being her best friend, everything else will fall in step behind it."

* * *

DuClaire and her guests were gathered around the table for the morning's discussion before their departure. Shinji and Rei managed to clean up the room and make it somewhat presentable before the maid arrived, and Asuka's attire was significantly more tasteful than her choice for their night at the club. She now wore a yellow sundress and red shoes, giving her shoulder graft exposure the morning light.

"So...Shinji, Wondergirl...You two still joined at the hip, or have things cooled off?"

"We can still do our own thing, Asuka! Rei and Hikari occasionally hang out and I'm still friends with Kensuke and Touji. We don't do much more than just have sync tests at HQ, though."

"And what about she who is completely insane?"

"Uhh...Is that Misato or Mari?"

"Actually I was referencing Blondie, but those two fit, too."

"Well, they're all good...Maya's still in the hospital." Asuka didn't notice Rei's face falling when _that_ name was mentioned.

"Oh...She was one of the tolerable ones. Is she expected to-"

"She'll get better...Eventually..."

Beth tapped her glass with a fork, calling everybody to attention. "I've no doubt that Page is going to attempt to pursue you, and Hengsha is Belltower's territory. They've all but supplanted the Chinese Police in the less affluent segments of the city, and Tai-Yong Medical's mechanical augmentees control the business district. I can't believe I'm asking this, but try not to kill too many of them."

"And on that cheery note," Kaji remarked, "we're hopping to Dubai for a midpoint fuel stop and then finishing to Japan to get Shinji and Rei outfitted for heavier combat, and Asuka goes back under Misato's guardianship until SEELE is finished. Beth, you can come with us now if you want, or you can just talk to Ritsuko later."

* * *

8 Hours Later: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

"Ladies and Gentleman: Dubai International, Concourse B. Stretch your legs while I spend even more of NERV's money and be back within two hours or I take off without you. And that threat _does_ extend to the two teenagers who got us into this mess." Kaji stuck his head out from the pilot's seat and smirked to Shinji and Rei, seated in the fuselage on one side of the lateral bench seat, with Elizabeth and Asuka across on the other.

The four of them exited the VTOL and walked across the small-aircraft tarmac at the massive and affluent international airport. The UAE, being the supermodern nation that it is, is known for its opulence and excess, and its airport is no different. It has more than its fair share of attractions, shopping, and food for the wealthy world-travelers that pass through its gates. The first thing Asuka noticed were the tax and tariff free jewelers, and she quickly disappeared inside several of them. Beth solicited a beverage dealer for several bottles of Sheridan's, distinctive in their fused, twin-glass design and distilled coffee flavor.

Rei noticed a cluster of trees on the top floor of the concourse, so the inseparable pair found their way up the escalator network to the airport's award winning indoor conservatory. They walked along the artificial river and smelled the naturally filtered air put out by the palm trees and ferns, a welcome change of environment coming from the interior of the spartan and industrial military transport.

Confirming the time, the four returned to the concourse exit and showed their NERV IDs to the security at the light traffic apron. They all walked to the VTOL, Beth's refreshments in her bag, and Asuka lording her new ruby-studded gold bracelet over Rei.

"I am not a jewelry wearer, Asuka. How were you able to afford that?"

"We're both rich, Rei. I got it for a _really_ good price after showing the shopkeeper my NERV ID and telling him what I could do with the letter opener beside his register." Asuka darkly grinned at the memory of the guy's horrified expression. "Still, I paid for it, so there was no reason for that guy to act like such a baby about it."

They reached Kaji's VTOL. "Thank you all so much for only being 17 minutes late." The rogue deadpanned as they boarded. They secured themselves and their effects and Kaji sealed the craft and lifted up off the parking ramp. "On to Japan through Indian, Burman, and Tiawanese airspace. We're not going over China because we don't want them to know where we're coming from, but it's going to make the next 10 hours rather dry..."

The people in the passenger compartment collectively groaned.

* * *

One of the surface intersections in Tokyo-3 opened, the red-painted panels sliding back in four directions to reveal an air-traffic passage down to the actual surface of Hakone, Japan: The GeoFront.

As opposed to the dignified walk of Kawrou, Ritsuko, and the Professor, Mari and Misato ran at a full sprint to the disembarking passengers, only to stumble into each other and crash to the ground when they saw the tall and young blonde woman exit the aircraft.

Kaji emerged around from the cockpit to smirk at the pile of women as Beth covered her mouth and forced herself not to laugh.

"Colonel Katsuragi, you aren't projecting the image of a professional Officer, and this other crash victim must be the girl that blew DeBeers back to the stone age."

Misato picked herself up off the ground. "Okay, you know who we are. Who are you?"

"I'm the woman who saved Asuka's life. I'm the woman who's going to slip Shinji and Rei into China. Beth DuClaire; I am SEELE-03."

Misato's confused face went flat. She drew her handgun. Beth stared unflinchingly, straight into the barrel.

"I'm going to give you one more try, but only because I don't believe you."

"Inspector Kaji drew a gun on me when I mentioned it within his earshot. Is pulling a weapon a Pavlovian response around NERV?"

"There's a gun to your head and you're making jokes-" Kaji's hand snatched the pistol away from Misato.

"Correction. There _was_ a gun to her head. She _is_ SEELE-03 and she's been on our side since the beginning...well, not exactly our side, but she's been investigating the other SEELE Units for the Illuminati since SEELE was formed."

"And you came here to 'get Shinji and Rei into China'? Forgive me for _still_ wanting to shoot you."

"She's telling the truth, Misato." She recognized Shinji and Rei stretching their stiff muscles after the day-long flight. They were wearing strange clothing and Shinji looked a bit worse for wear, but she had a cascade of relief as she saw her kids come home.

"Shinji! Rei! ...ASUKA!?" She ran to the yellow-clad redhead and wrapped her in a hug. She quickly let go when Asuka winced at her shoulder.

"That's a graft over a gunshot wound, Misato! It still hurts when you put pressure on it."

"Asuka, what happened to you?"

"SEELE-05 happened. They sent somebody after me, I got shot, Section 2 extracted me, and Beth picked me up at the hospital. I've been in Paris since then. Apparently Shinji and Rei got it worse than I did?"

"Yeah, their train was destroyed...I assume you've already seen the medical treatment they needed." Shinji and Rei approached during the conversation. "Rei, I like your new tunic and those leggings, but why does Shinji look like an underweight Terminator?"

"We're wearing concealed tactical protection, Colonel Katsuragi. Shinji's coat covers his ballistic vest, while my entire ensemble is woven from carbon fiber."

"This is actually my second vest and jacket, Misato. The first set was torn to bits when a suicide bomber blew me through a bunch of tables."

"WHAT!?"

"The armor and my medical systems did their job, Misato. Said bomber is probably still getting scraped off the walls of the club they attacked."

"Indeed." Beth explained. "SEELE-05 and SEELE-02 posses nearly unlimited resources. Page sent a detachment of his most sophisticated security into Paris, and they caught up to us in a popular night spot...The club's security and a large number of partiers were killed. However, once Shinji and Rei made it through the initial shock, they made very short work of them. You'll see first hand when you download the footage."

Misato considered the turn of events. "Well, then lets go inside and get that taken care of."

* * *

"YOU WANT WHAT!?"

"Calm down, Dr. Akagi. NERV's cloning facilities are (not) a secret, not to SEELE or the Illuminati."

"I get that! What I don't understand is why you don't just use the facilities Kaworu was created in." Ritsuko turned away from Beth and looked at Shinji and Rei, sitting in office chairs and dreading the nausea that would come from the unbuffered neural download. "We know how Sarif transmits data to a neural implant, but we don't yet have the facilities we need to do it ourselves. So hold still-"

Ritsuko issued the commands from her terminal to connect the MAGI to Shinji and Rei's biochip. Shinji and Rei both groaned as the nausea hit as hundreds of gigabytes of high definition audio and video were transmitted from their brain to the nearest WiFi antenna.

"gonna throw up; gonna throw up; gonna throw up; gonna throw up; gonna throw up; gonna throw up-"

"Shut up, Shinji, it's already over." Ritsuko completed the transfer and the two teens recoiled and covered their now-sensitive eyes from the bright lights of the synchronization test control room. "I should note that the interesting side-effect of a neural upload is a hangover, of all things. Misato and the two of you have more in common than you realize."

"Now that your work is done, Dr. Akagi, lets allow them to rest and we'll discuss my decision to travel out here."

"Yes, lets. If you're a SEELE representative here to make peace with us by asking to clone yourself, I ask why you didn't use the facilities the Fifth Child was created in?"

Kaworu, Mari, Kaji, and Misato just happened to enter the room at that moment. Kaworu took the opportunity to solve Ritsuko's query.

"The only functional LCL cloning facilities SEELE possessed were the Lunar facilities at Tabtha Base, Dr. Akagi. After Unit-06 and I were deployed, well, there was no reason to maintain that overpriced garage, was there? SEELE, the UN, the IPEA, and whatever other alphabet soup organizations that slithered from the sewers to Occupy the Moon all abandoned it to save money. Ms. DuClaire does not have the means to return to Tabtha and reactivate the facilities, does she?"

"And you don't object to seeing a woman who calls herself a SEELE member waltzing around NERV HQ, entering our most secure facilities?"

"Sure, why not?"

Ritsuko looked like she was going to scream. "GYAAAH! This job's gonna make me go postal! Are ANY of you listening to what's happening here?"

Misato actually came to Beth's defense as she watched the playback first-person shooting from Rei's position on the upper level of the nightclub. Three more agents in suits and ties fell to Rei's rifle fire as Shinji lit two others on fire with a grenade. "Beth is telling the truth, and we've got proof right here on film." She turned to Elizabeth. "Our cloning lab was destroyed. Shinji and Rei decided to protest Gendo's experiments in the most excellent way possible. We can give you a clone daughter, but we have to Rebuild the lab, and that'll take time and money. Money isn't a problem, but time is. It'll take more than a year to get it ready to make you a daughter."

"That's fine, time is no object for me. To begin my side of the bargain, I hold the penthouse at Hengsha Court Gardens. The Children will be staying there. I can get them in contact with the people that'll sell them the equipment they need. Between NERV's armory and the illegal market the Illuminati controls, they'll be well protected as they invade Tai-Yong and attack Zhao."

"Beth, I'm not sure NERV will be able to hold up our end of this bargain."

"What do you mean, Dr. Akagi?"

"Rei and Kaworu are synthetic bodies for organic souls. I know you're already aware of this, but Rei is Lillith and Kaworu is Adam. We humans can create synthetic tissue, organs, even a synthetic human brain, but we cannot create a soul that will inhabit it. All we've been able to do is create a home for a soul that _already exists._ You may hear crazy talk coming from my mouth, but my interactions with Rei-3 prove my point. The soul provides consciousness, intelligence, and -in Adam and Lillith's case- the tangible AT Field. Rei lost hers when Lillith's body was destroyed by the Lance. Kaworu has not suffered an event so traumatic, yet...I was working with Rei-3 at a time where an unusual series of events involving the Fifteenth Angel and Shinji's temper resulted in Rei-2 living inside Shinji...That's the best description of the scenario that I can give you, but until Rei willingly separated from Shinji's soul, her third body was an empty husk, devoid of thought or emotion. I'll create a clone daughter for you, but not until NERV can create a 'synthetic' soul. Giving you a soulless clone like Rei-3 before her unification...It's not a risk I'm willing to take."

Beth contemplated Ritsuko's words. "I appreciate your decision to be candid, Dr. Akagi. I may not be much older than Colonel Katsuragi, here, but I'm not getting any younger either. I understand NERV's need to face tangible threats, but I do hope you'll give my request priority in your research."

"Of course I will, the Artificial Evolution Laboratory exists for this very reason."

"Then, if you plan on accommodating me, we need to get the Children to China as soon as possible."

"That's right!" Misato received a burst of energy. "Shinji, Rei, make sure you're ready to go by tomorrow morning. We need to hit the bastards at TYM before they're ready for us."

"Excuse me, Misato, aren't you forgetting a few people?" Mari and Asuka crept up behind her and crossed their arms.

"No. I don't care what you two think, you aren't prepared to go jump into this like it's a game-"

"Misato, you're not going to win this argument. Everybody in this room has a dog in this fight. Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Kaworu were all attacked by SEELE. I have a confirmed kill on a SEELE Unit. We're all experienced killers, and we're a team. All five of us."

"No, _hell_ no! Mari and Kaworu stay here because we need Unit-06 and Asuka doesn't have any supplemental power like Shinji, Rei, or Kaworu do."

"I don't believe it." Shinji thought out loud. "We're putting the band back together!"

"UNIT-06! Is nobody listening to me!?"

"I have a solution for that, Misato." Shinji grinned and Kaworu raised an eyebrow.

* * *

"Sakura, you're capable of walking on your own, you know." A trio of kids walked hand in hand down a Tokyo-3 street.

"Yeah, but I like hanging on to you and Hikari! She's my new big sister!"

Touji Suzuhara had managed to go from wheelchair-bound disabled veteran to track runner in the six months since his designation as the Fourth Child, and the subsequent destruction of Evangelion Unit-03, torn to bits with him inside. His 8 year old sister still hadn't quite forgiven him for stupidly punching Shinji when the two first met, his less-than-solid logic stating that Shinji was responsible for Sakura Suzuhara's crippling injuries when the Fourth Angel threw Unit-01 into their apartment building. Now, he was standing to his young sister's left, holding her hand and hoisting her up as his girlfriend -and Sakura's self-proclaimed big sister- held her right hand as they walked around Tokyo-3. His phone rang with Shinji's number appearing on the ID screen.

"Shinji, why haven't you showed your face in 3 weeks? Summer's almost over, man-

Uhh...Ok. I can be at NERV HQ...Yeah, my card's still good. Listen, I'm here with Hikari and my little sister, can I drop them off, first...What do you mean 'they need to see this'?

Bring Kensuke? Why? Shinji what happened-...YOU WHAT!?" He ended the call and turned to Hikari and Sakura.

"Touji, what was that all about?" His pigtailed girlfriend asked him.

"...I'm gonna start piloting Eva Unit-_06_."

"WHAT!? Unit-03 almost killed you! You can't let them make you do it again-" Touji held up his hand.

"Shinji personally asked me to. He said he needed somebody to protect NERV HQ while he 'goes after the bastards'. No, I have no idea what he's talking about, but if he needs me, I'm gonna help him." He dialed his phone again. "Hey, Sukes, want a tour of NERV HQ? Meet me outside the surface train entrance."

"Does that mean you're gonna help Shinji, big bro?" His sister asked him.

"Yeah...I guess I am. Let's get you home."

* * *

Ritsuko and Kaworu met the Fourth Child and his entourage at NERV's surface entrance. Ritsuko had to give Kensuke a death glare as the boy repeatedly tried to pull his camera on the various facilities, but there were no real objections from the guests. The doctor led the group through the labyrinthine levels as they made their way down to the sync test control room, and Kaworu interviewed Touji as they traveled.

"Fourth Child, I'm sure you feel confused at all this, but I've brought you here to create a link to _my_ Evangelion Unit. We've never been introduced, but I'm Kaworu Nagisa, the Fifth Child."

"Yeah, I heard there was another one. Why do you need me?"

"Because the other Five Children, including myself, will be arguing with Colonel Katsuragi about following the First and Third to China to assault a member of a shadow government collective. We need someone to remain in wait with an Evangelion on alert."

Hikari, being the perceptive one, overheard. "Did you just say 'shadow government collective'? Tinfoil hat, much?"

"The organization is real, and you'll understand when you speak to Shinji and Rei."

* * *

While Mari and Misato were debating the merits of sending everybody to China, Shinji whispered to Rei to get into her plugsuit, and they emerged from the locker rooms to approach Unit-01.

"Shinji, if you plan on performing a sync test, will my presence not interfere with your performance?"

"I'm not going for a high sync. We're going to talk to my mom. Hey, Sarge, I need to do a test with a passenger, today." He nodded over to the crew chief as the entry plug was opened.

When he saw Ritsuko and Touji enter the test control room, he helped Rei inside and she splashed down through the LCL. She grabbed a handrail on the control capsule and balanced on a stairstep as Shinji sat at the controls. The door shut and an electrical current activated the LCL in the plug. It shifted from blood orange liquid to a transparent gas and Shinji and Rei felt a burst of energy and alertness as the oxygen-rich atmosphere enhanced their senses.

Meanwhile, Touji entered the pilots' locker room and pulled himself into his new plugsuit, an exact copy of his original, shredded one. The support crews helped him into Unit-06 and he swallowed his fear of Unit-03 as the door shut.

"Oh man this is so cool! We're gonna watch Touji activate the newest Eva Unit! Hikari, you've gotta admit you're proud of him." Kensuke inspected every centimeter of the control room.

"I am. I'm just worried. Where's Shinji? He owes us an explanation." She looked around the control room.

"Right here, Hikari. Touji, do you read me?"

"Yeah, loud and clear." Their portraits appeared on the monitors covering the control room walls.

"Shinji, mind explaining why Rei is hanging off the side of the capsule?" Ritsuko asked as she increased Unit-01's field of view, to show Rei balancing on the footrails.

"Because we have somebody to talk to, and you'd flip out of you saw her sitting on my lap or something."

"Not that the idea isn't appealing." Rei finished for him. Ritsuko's face hit her desk.

"Will you kids ever do _anything_ properly?"

"Shinji, Rei, what exactly did you bring us out here for?" Hikari asked them.

"We need somebody to keep one Eva Unit active at HQ. Up until now, Kaworu had been on alert with Unit-06, but we've all ganged up on Misato and demanded that the team come to China with us. It's a long story, but we're going to take out the people who attacked us."

"You mean...when the Army accused NERV of treason against Japan?"

"Not the JSDF, the people who wrote the false report accusing us. One of the leaders is in Hengsha."

"Shinji...you're going to go assassinate somebody!"

"I know it sounds bad, but look at my eyes." He zoomed the video to a closeup of his and Rei's faces.

"Are you...glowing?"

"They're implants after Rei and I were mortally wounded when somebody tried to kill _us_."

"WHAT?!"

"Exactly. We've been gone for the last few weeks because we had to get medical treatment in the US, then we went to Paris to investigate one of the people who went after us."

"So...you've already killed-"

"Well, Rei and I haven't, but Mari has."

"What?"

The perky brunette answered Hikari's question. "We found out that one of the bastards was in England. Since I'm British, I went home for a couple days and had a chat with him. Unfortunately, he isn't dead, just a vegetable."

"I...I...why are you all so blithely talking about killing like this?" Hikari was becoming uncomfortable at her surroundings. Rei spoke up.

"Hikari. Do you remember when I explained why I remain distant from my peers?"

"Yeah, it was after Touji got hurt. But...the Angels are gone...all of that's over now-"

"No it is not. We Children speak about death easily because we are soldiers, despite our behavior and appearance. We accept our roles because, as Asuka can relate, we face opponents who will go far beyond NERV's ethical boundaries to complete their goals."

"Who?"

"People who wanted to see the Third and Fourth Impact."

"And Asuka? What happened?"

Asuka rolled down her dress sleeve to show Hikari her gunshot wound.

"Oh my God!"

"It's okay, Hikari. I got patched up just like Shinji and Rei did. And even if Misato doesn't like it..." She glared at the raven-haired woman. "We're all in this together, and we're going after the bastards that attacked us. Oh, and for the record. You two plebes aren't allowed to repeat any of this, _ever._"

While Hikari and Kensuke were learning classified NERV information, Ritsuko was discussing Unit-06 with Kaworu.

"And you're sure he can sync?"

"How was Unit-00 controlled, Doctor?"

"With a piece of Lillith's soul. Rei didn't have a family member to link to it."

"Exactly. Unit-06 is identical in function. I have complete influence over myself, and as such, over it."

"So..." She rotated her hand, obliging him to continue.

"It will accept Mr. Suzuhara if I direct it to."

"Alright then. ATTENTION: Unit-01 and Unit-06 ACTIVATION! Repeat Unit-01 and Unit-06 ACTIVATION! Enable A-10 connection! Pilot vitals, comms, and display online! Activate Unit internal power!

The two garantuans eye's glowed and Aoba's monitors picked up the plugsuits' life-support reports while Makoto monitored the sync for Shinji and Touji.

"Unit-01 performance: Nominal. Unit-06 sync at 09%. Concentrate, Touji. We need you."

"I'm trying, but if feels so weird in here..." Touji answered from within.

Kaworu closed his eyes, breathed in, and raised his hand towards Unit-06.

"Dr. Akagi!" Makoto shouted. "Unit-06 synchronization is at 60%! I don't know how Touji just did it!"

Kaworu winked to the blonde scientist.

* * *

Shinj and Rei closed their eyes and cleared their minds. Shinji heard a voice inside his head.

"Shinji, what happened to you. I can tell that you're injured-"

= We're going after SEELE, Mom. =

"What!? Shinji you-"

= I know you're worried, and that's exactly why we have to go. We're going to be in China as we locate SEELE-05. =

"Shinji, it's too dangerous."

= Mom, Rei and I were nearly killed until we got billions of tiny robots injected inside us. SEELE hit our subway train with a missile strike. =

"And you think getting back is a good idea!? Shinji, I'm proud of your courage, but I understand SEELE. They are truly evil human beings. One of the reasons I entered Unit-01 was so I'd have the power to resist them personally."

= Yeah, but now it's up to me and Rei...Wait, why isn't Rei hearing this? =

"I'm having a little trouble bringing her thoughts into my own...Shinji, lower your own sync."

Shinji focused less intensely. His mother's voice became muffled, but he began to hear Rei calling to them.

"Shinji! Your...sync to Unit-01...is overpowering my...own-"

"I'm consciously controlling it, Rei...I can't believe I'm saying this in front of my mother, but climb on my lap." Shinji disabled the video output from Unit-01 to the control room. Misato noticed and shouted into the radio.

"SHINJI, YOU'D BETTER NOT BE DOING THAT IN MY ROBOT!"

"We're not, Misato! We just can't focus well!"

Rei climbed on top of Shinji and rolled over to face him. "I think I see where you're going with this, Shinji." She took his hands and pressed her forehead against his own. She used her connection to Shinji to speak to Yui. = Dr. Ikari? =

"Rei. I wish I could meet you in person. I want to beg your forgiveness for the things my ex-husband did to you. Please, call me Yui."

= Yui. = Rei's mind spoke to her source of life. = Do you oppose my relationship with Shinji? =

"On what grounds? That you were created from the Angels NERV and Gehirn exist to kill?"

= No...that I was created from DNA samples from you... =

"Let's see...I don't feel any 'family' connection at all. The most Gendo did to you was give you my pointed chin and figure. Everthing else about you, _especially_ your heart and soul, belong to Lillith, and I'm certain you have no desire to destroy the planet, do you?"

Rei's confidence whithered. = In the past- =

"In the past you were controlled by Gendo."

= Dr. Ikari, please forgive me for being disrespectful, but what did you see in him? =

"Unlike me, he had a hard life as a young man, but he was still strong, intelligent, courageous...I think you see where I'm going with this. I didn't know that I'd be his greatest weakness until just before Unit-01's contact experiment. Instrumentality was (not) the purpose of the Eva Program until Gendo and SEELE made it that way. With Unit-01, I'd have the power to resist them personally, and I could personally protect my Shinji."

= Intelligence, courage...That is what I see in Shinji. I also see his constant selflessness. = Rei admitted to Yui. = Peers such as Colonel Katsuragi have always been kind to me, but she never related to me as Shinji has. His kindness was the first true connection I've ever felt. Commander Ikari manipulated me. Shinji's kindness is what saved me...and prevented me from destroying humanity. =

"Then you owe him your gratitude, don't you? Trust me, you don't want to break his heart when your future mother in law has control of a giant robot."

= ...Mother in law? =

"That means you have my blessing...But first, I suppose there's no dissuading you from attacking SEELE, is there?"

= No ma'am, this must be done. =

* * *

After confirming Touji in Unit-06 and extracting Shinji and Rei from Unit-01, both still fully clothed -to Misato's relief, Kaji and Elizabeth met the Five Children in NERV's armory.

"We took the liberty of updating the plugsuits to match this assignment." Kaji handed compressed black-and-blue suits to their three owners. "They've been re-dyed, all three of them have been stripped of their identification and decorations, and we've replaced the power conduit with battery packs. This way they'll function away from an Eva Unit. Shinji and Rei have a full-suite neural interface, but, with the plugsuits, you three-" he nodded to Asuka, Mari, and Kaworu, "will have a radio uplink and health monitor here at NERV."

"Why the bad paint job? I want my red one back!"

"You're going to be operating in the dark, Asuka. Your equipment should match your environment. The black and blue will make you all but disappear in darkness."

Kaji moved on to the wall of armaments they'd be smuggling in.

"Shinji, Rei, you two first." He picked two handguns and one assault rifle from the wall. "Your Zenith 10's are already decked out, thanks to David. You're good to go with those." He picked up Rei's stolen FR-27. "The rifle Rei knocked off of one of those chemical freaks needed some work, but we've got it suppressed, it now has a red-dot sight, and Beth was kind enough to buy the targeting computer that smuggler in Paris was selling. With one illegal targeting mod, the .303" flechettes are capable of firing in a 30 degree arc of the line of sight. Remember that if you get pinned behind a desk or railing. You'll get a load of full magazines when we arrive in Hengsha." He handed the rifle to Rei, who checked the new modifications.

"Asuka."

The fiery redhead became alert. "Yes, Kaji?"

"You get two TMP-18 submachine guns. 9mm, silenced, compact and concealable. 900 rounds per minute _per weapon._ Fire in short bursts, or the recoil will have you shooting everything but your target."

"I'm proficient with small arms, Kaji. I'm well aware of muzzle rise."

"Mari." He turned to the strange young woman. "I'm giving you your SCAR back-"

"AWESOME!"

"...I've supplied you a new ACOG sight. It provides 6X magnification, and you're going to pack both the long-range barrel and the close-quarters variant-"

"AWESOME!"

"...In case you haven't already figured it out, you're sniper support. A SCAR 17 makes for an excellent designated marksman rifle, and the long-range barrel extends the maximum range out to 800 meters-"

"AWESOME!"

Kaji facepalmed. = That is really going to get on my nerves. = "Practice changing the barrels quickly and quietly, and don't say it again." He glared at her as she was drawing a deep breath.

"...dammit."

"Kaworu. From what I understand, you're still half-Angel, right?"

"Yes, Inspector, I am."

"While I'm tempted to give you nothing and just tell you to pummel your opponents into submission," Kaji smirked, "you're getting a Widowmaker TX." He handed the shotgun to the young man. "Gas operated, high rate of fire. Every sniper needs a bodyguard, and with an active AT field, I can't think of a better man for the job. You're going to stop anything from getting close to Mari so she can focus on concentrating at long-range-"

The insane girl burst into the conversation. "Hey Kaworu, that mean's we get to slink off to dark corners together while the others have to get shot at!"

"Remind me why I put up with you, again?"

"Because _I_ actually know how to have _fun_!"

Shinji and Asuka were very entertained. "Come on, Fifth, you just gonna let her get away with that?"

"...Unfortunately, I don't have a particularly clever insult to give."

* * *

Night fell on Tokyo-3.

Asuka found herself back in her old room in Misato's apartment. = Wondergirl _still_ hasn't decorated this place! = She thought to herself as she looked at the bare walls of the room. There was a mirror hung, Rei's closet was at least stocked with some variety, and there were several hair brushes and toiletries on the room's wardrobe. = Shinji gave Rei his room, _of course_, and he's on the couch...I wonder how long until he makes it into Wondergirl's waiting legs. =

Aside from Rei, the other person in Shinji's room was Misato, who entered after Rei retired for the night.

"Rei, two nights ago...yesterday morning in Paris, I suppose...I was harsh on you and Shinji."

"No need to apologize-"

"Yes there is. You _five_ are about to launch out into an invasion...up to now, we've been playing defense. This could be...our last conversation, and I didn't want you having a bad impression of me."

"I don't. I know you care for Shinji-"

"And you. I...I was kind of a bad girl at your age. Hooking up with Kaji is something I should've waited on, and now that we're engaged...I know you're a lot smarter, and grown up, than I am. I shouldn't have gotten angry at either of you. At least you and I know we're more alike that I thought, now." Misato smiled to her.

Rei returned said smile. It was easy for Misato to see what Shinji found so attractive.

* * *

The morning's first light...

Five young adults wearing civilian clothing, all towing wheeled suitcases carrying armor and excellent weapons, approach a NERV VTOL. Ryouji Kaji ran through the preflight checks to bring the bird online, and they departed for Hengsha, global seat of Tai-Yong Medical, the company belonging to a powerful conspirator on the SEELE council.

* * *

A/N: In case you didn't notice, Mari's SCAR is the only 'Real World' weapon in this story (Everything else is from Human Revolution). A: It's my favorite weapon _ever_. B: She kicked ass with it in 'Legend'.


	12. Under the Table

Chapter 12: Under the Table

* * *

"Alright kids, look outside." Kaji slowed the VTOL to just above its stall speed and lowered the cargo doors. The sudden rush of wind blew the girls' hair around and dried out the teen's eyes, but still, _they saw it_.

"Kaji! Is that-…Is it?" Asuka was incapable of forming a coherent sentence, Mari was silently imagining all the best hangouts in the massive city –all the better to drag the silver-haired object of her attention off to, while Shinji and Rei really weren't that impressed; they'd lived in a similar environment far longer than the other three. The Hengsha Pangu was still under construction, and only a few segments of it were fully operational. Once complete, Hengsha would be a double-decker city much like Tokyo-3.

"Tokyo-3 isn't the only supercity in the world." Kaji spoke over the VTOL's intercom. "Shanghai is the fastest-growing metropolitan district on the planet, and Hengsha Island is getting an artificial upper layer. Unlike Tokyo-3, it's not a dome; it's going to be a table, of sorts, that stands atop Lower Hengsha on massive pylons. Seattle, Washington has a similar plan for expansion, still in the design stage."

When they flew under the completed portion of the roof, the group was pitched into the now-endless night of lower Hengsha. The finished structure would blot the Sun from the lower city entirely. The VTOL navigated around the lower-level towers and high rises, flying to the point Beth identified as Hengsha Court Gardens. Kaji throttled back and the VTOL's engines rotated backwards to leave the craft hovering in place above the luxury apartments' courtyard. He opened the lift doors and ordered the teens to fastrope down, with the predictable reaction.

"WHAT!? Why the hell aren't you just letting us in!? Are we supposed to 'invade and liberate' the place from the renters!?"

"No, Asuka. Belltower mercenary forces are no doubt looking for NERV transports as we speak, so I'm roping you down then hightailing it back to Japan before I get shot out of the sky. Now get out of here!"

That explanation being the best answer they'd get, the teens gathered their equipment then slid down the climbing ropes to the apartment courtyard below them, grimacing at the smell of the Shanghai smog that eternally hung in the air. Kaji returned his aircraft to flying status, rotated around to an exit heading out of Hengsha Island, and sped away at full throttle. There were entrances to individual homes all around them, and this courtyard seemed to be a social area. Several street vendor stands and meal carts were surrounded by tables decorated with traditional paper lanterns. This morning, dark as night from the Pangu blotting out the sun, nobody was out and about in the area.

Shinji and Rei led the group in to the lobby receptionist's office and stopped to receive their entry keys…

"Uhh…Rei and I speak English and Japanese…anybody good with Chinese?"

Mari spoke the same two languages, so she shook her head no.

"I am fluent only in Japanese, Shinji. My English is dreadful." Came Kawrou's negative answer.

"I speak German, French, English, and Japanese, Shinji; you can't expect me to learn Mandarin, too!"

"Fine, Asuka, we weren't accusing you of anything. Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way…" He approached the receptionist and made a hand signal imitating a pen and paper. Shinji configured his translation software to give him traceable prompts for Mandarin text. He wrote out the request to the receptionist by hand.

'_We're guests in the penthouse. Beth DuClaire sent us.'_

The receptionist happily answered –in Mandarin. Shinji and Rei's software translated his speech. "Yes, we were notified ahead of time. Your two room keys." He handed the pair one key each. "You and your company please follow me." He walked from behind his desk and headed towards the elevator.

"You and Wondergirl understood him?"

"Our software suite contains written and auditory translation conventions."

"Just once, Rei, could you (not) sound like you're quoting from a manual?"

"If my speech patterns irritate you, blank them out…Actually, I suppose you can't. You're not able to silence ambient noise like Shinji and I can." Rei looked over her shoulder to see Asuka fuming while Mari choked back a laugh.

"Did-did Watergirl just use her enhancements to troll the Princess?"

* * *

"This place is fantastic!" Mari darted from the elevator, down the hall, and into the three bedroom penthouse and ran from room to room, finding the three bedrooms, two dining rooms, and the kitchen -with minibar. "Five teenagers living without adults, all under one roof! It's gonna be just like one of those shitty American reality shows!" The attendant stood, dumbfounded at the girl, as she ran around the apartment like a five year old.

Shinji gave his exasperated answer as they followed her in. "We're here to work, Mari."

"Work? My ass! You and your blue half get to go bounding across New York and Paris and you call that 'work'!? Hengsha Island is one of the best hangouts for exchange students on the planet! We've got to go to the Hive!"

"What's 'the Hive'?"

"Only the seediest, dirtiest, _sexiest_ club in China! If me, Rei, and Asuka wear short enough skirts, we'll get in for free! You ugly males will have to pay like 1000 credits each." Mari had a devilish grin on her face.

"Mari…" Shinji rubbed his temples while Rei and Asuka _visibly_ disliked the idea of walking into a club dressed like Working Girls. "No matter what happens before we break into TYM, _this isn't a vacation._ Rei and I got to spend time together in New York and Paris, sure, but didn't you get to go to London?"

"That was only for one day. We're gonna be here for how long? I'm _going to_ take advantage of it!" She wrapped an arm around Kaworu's neck, who silently mouthed to the other teens. '_HELP ME.'_ His superhuman good looks were the supposed result of the perfection of SEELE's clone process, but they only served as a curse whenever Mari was around.

"Four-eyes needs to release her prisoner, then we'll get settled." Shinji looked over the apartment's layout one more time. "Rei and I will take the Queen bedroom, Mari and Kaworu get the double, and Asuka can get the single. Rei and I need Cyberboost bars and powder, so we're going to go to the LIMB clinic, where they sell that kind of stuff. You guys can come if you want-" A telephone rang in the apartment's great room. Asuka happened to be standing nearest to it.

"…Beth? Oh, obviously…We like it…It's plenty big, Mari's being her usual infuriating self, but we can stomach each other enough for the five of us to live together…Where? Peng Xin Hao…What a name."

Asuka hung up and turned to the group. "Make sure we've got plenty of cash. Kaji informed HQ that we put down and Beth wants us to go to the Alice Garden pod hotel to meet this 'Peng' guy. She says he's an arms dealer in the Illuminati's network. Shinji and Rei do their thing, and I suggest us normal people layer up. Wear a jacket or something over our plugsuits. If we walk around only in skintight Kevlar, somebody's going to notice…"

* * *

The teens walked through Hengsha Court Gardens' street-level gates and out into lower Hengsha. Rei walked up to a road sign cluster. "We are in 'Youzhao' District, 'Of the Future'. We need to travel to 'Jiu Schichang' district. That's where we'll find the LIMB Clinic."

Mari caught up to her and took her side. "What is a 'LIMB' clinic, anyway, Rei?"

"Shinji and I have never needed treatment at one, but Dr. Darrow briefed us on them nonetheless. They are small medical centers that specialize in cybernetic implants and the distribution of anti-rejection drugs –of which Neuropazyne is the most effective, and the sales of nutrition supplements necessary for implant users. Our 'Cyberboost' brand meal replacements are synthetic food sources that cause the human body to produce amplified levels of bioelectric current. Our augmentations then harvest this electricity to function."

"What happens if your batteries go dead?"

"Our enhancements cease to function. Shinji experienced this first hand, in Paris."

He shouted from amidst the rest of the quintet, several paces behind Rei and Mari. "It hurt like hell, too!"

"Jiu Schichang, Train 2." Rei led the group to the subway station in the area. Fees were no problem for the _well_ paid child soldiers, the train cut the walking distance significantly, and the train would arrive within viewing distance of the LIMB Clinic.

* * *

The walk up the stairway to the new district's streets placed the teens within plain view of the clinic…and in the courtyard at the entry doors, a group of armored adult men surrounding what looked like a boy, younger than Shinji, cowering with his hands up while they held him at gunpoint.

The five froze at the top step and looked around at groups of the town's civilians; many of them shouting Chinese-accented English occasionally laced with British slurs.

"Leave him alone you wankers!"  
"Go back to Leeds or something!"  
"Screw you Belltower tea-wops!"  
"Police Brutality!"

A box of text appeared in Shinji's field of view, a text message from Rei. He turned to see her urging the other three to be quiet and remain still. '_Belltower security forces. It would appear that they've supplanted Hengsha's police force. They are our opponent for the duration of our stay. We cannot afford to broadcast our presence in this city. If we are to throw them off that boy, we'll need to do it discreetly-'_

Her message was interrupted when she, Asuka, and Shinji watched Kaworu –assisted by his Angelic strength- throw a loose brick from the stairway in a perfect fastball into the back of one of the Belltower soldiers' heads. His helmet shattered and he was knocked into the pavement, unconscious. Immediately after Kaworu made the throw -and before the Belltower men could bring their weapons to bear on the group of teenagers behind them- Mari threw her overcoat to the side and took off running towards one of them, only to jump into the air and land with her thighs wrapped around the soldier's neck, squeezing him in a tight vise grip as her momentum toppled the armored soldier, simultaneously choking him and slamming his head into the ground.

"Of all the ways to get your ass kicked, at least the girl doing it _looks good!_" Mari gloated as she sprinted away from the unconscious soldier, the others struggling to aim at her. They turned back to the group and opened fire, the multiple assault rifles pouring lead into the large glowing hexagon that appeared out of thin air before the pale, grey haired boy holding his hands up.

"Stay behind the field and advance with me!" Kaworu began trudging towards the soldiers, the kinetic energy of the hail of bullets impacting his projected AT field, creating a pressure pushing back against him as he struggled forward with his companions a few paces behind him.

Nearly simultaneously, the Belltower men's rifles emptied and the three abnormal teens struck. Kaworu dropped the field and darted forwards, grabbing two men by their vest collars, lifting them up off the ground, and demonstrating what they could do when they put their heads together. He threw their unconscious bodies to the ground. Shinji illuminated two of their necks, identifying their Vagus nerve, and leopard-struck them in quick succession, leading them to collapse into a heap. Rei ran up between two soldiers, strength-punched one –who was knocked to the ground, and rolled behind the other to grab his elbows and stretch his head and neck out forward. The first of her victims roared a battle cry, flipped up and around, swinging a fist…until he realized his comrade's face was the destination of his fist. The sound of a skull cracking accompanied Rei's captive as he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. She chopped the second in his neck as he stared; stunned at the fact he fell for Rei's trap.

Asuka looked at the pile of unconscious soldiers and realized she did _nothing_, as her peers effortlessly dispatched a group of armed and armored killers. = I-I…I WAS USELESS! I can't bel- =

"ASUKA!" Shinji's voice awakened her from her daze. "Talk to that kid, we've got to make sure nobody sees these bodies."

Shinji, Rei, and Kaworu began carrying and dragging the Belltower soldiers into a back alley to pile them up, out of sight and out of mind. Asuka approached the cowering young boy.

"Hello? We don't speak Chinese, so…"

"I…I speak English. You guys just-"

"It's what we do. Why was Belltower attacking you?"

"They know my dad takes Neurop shots…He's got an artificial arm, and he had me get his prescription, then _they_ showed up."

"Why are they going after your dad?"

"My father is Si Hung Tong…He runs the Hive and basically _makes_ the black market traffic flow through the city…I don't like what he does, but we live better than pretty much everybody else in the lower city. My name's Tracer, by the way."

"Asuka. Asuka Langely Soryu! Charmed, right? Hey if your dad owns the Hive-"

"Yes, yes. I can bring you guys to the club. But that's not really a good thing…"

"Why not?"

"Because Harvesters are the bouncers there, and they're the real criminals in Hengsha."

"Who are 'Harvesters'?"

"Cybernetic, augmented gang criminals that kill other people with mechanical parts and then sell them on the black market. My dad has lots of power in the Harvester gang. They use his building as one of their hideouts and they act as the bouncers at the club."

"And you're okay with this?"

"No, I hate it, but what can I do?"

"Not much, I suppose. Besides, it looks like Belltower are the worse of the two…"

"You're right. They are."

The other four returned to see Asuka and Tracer in the middle of introducing themselves.

"Puppy, Watergirl, and Kaworu all made sure those Belltower pricks wake up in a world of hurt. Is your little friend okay, Princess?"

"Better than okay, Glasses: Tracer's dad owns the Hive and has power with the local criminal elements. This could work out for us."

* * *

'_Liberty in Mind and Body International. Here, you'll find Neuropazyne dispensaries and other prescription medication options, Cyberboost-brand solid meal replacements and powered drink cartons, and the marketplace for competing augmentation models from such well-known firms as Tai-Yong Medical, Sarif Industries, and N-Pro Tech. Want an Enhancement? Begin the process of applying for augmentation surgery right here in our lobby!'_

The cheerful synthetic voice looped throughout the television screens playing LIMB's commercials inside the clinic. The four 'natural' humans now accompanying Shinji and Rei waited idly as the pair stepped up to the ballistic-glass protected account agents' desk. Tracer showed no change of epression, being acclimated to spending time around people with large mechanical limb replacements, but Asuka and Mari couldn't stop themselves from staring at the complex mechanics making up the arms and legs worn by the patients that would occasionally pass by. Kaworu, for his part, wasn't particularly impressed. As he'd been raised in an organic cloning laboratory, he thought little of the (in his opinion) last-generation technology.

"Need Biochip maintenance? Download Praxis software? You are listed as Sarif Industries priority customers." The nurse at the sales counter greeted Shinji and Rei as they began searching through the computer catalog.

"No procedures, today, and we don't have mechanical limbs, so we don't need Praxis upgrades. We do need Cyberboost supplements, and we'd like to take a look at your field-medical kits."

"Very well, a Cyberboost meal plan is 250 UN Credits, and a hypostim injector and painkillers are 150 per pack. Each pack includes an emergency stimulant and coagulant injector, and the painkillers are prescription-strength. The medications are controlled substances, with a maximum of three per customer."

Shinji and Rei discussed for a moment and agreed to split the purchase, with the pair leaving the counter with large shopping bags containing a jar of the Cyberboost powder, a box of meal bars, and three medkits on both of them.

"We just spent 1400 credits out of pocket. This TYM break-in had better be worth it."

"And, Shinji, we still need to finish gathering our armaments at Alice Garden Pods. This really _is_ becoming a vacation, based on the money we've spent." Rei's _strange_ sense of humor was one of Shinji's favorite aspects about her. They returned to the rest of their little group and made their way out. "Do you believe those men will continue pursuing you, Tracer?" Rei gently asked the young boy.

"I don't know…They've never done anything to me or my dad, before."

"Then we'll ensure you're safely returned to the Hive. Your father may be a crime financier, but Belltower are our enemies, too."

"Thanks…I can't believe you guys are Augs! You don't have any metal parts."

"We didn't choose to be." Shinji answered. "Belltower attacked us in Japan-"

"And in Germany!" Asuka interjected.

"…She's right. We're from NERV, and a group of people who oversee us in the UN decided to get rid of us. They almost succeeded, until getting augmented saved our lives. Frankly, it only made it easier for _us_ to get back at _them_. We don't have any mechanical parts; we're using one of Sarif's experimental projects."

"So you guys came here?"

"We're breaking in to Tai-Yong Medical."

"Holy crap, that's crazy!"

"Yes, it is." Rei answered him. "But 'crazy'? That's our _job._"

"This'll be convenient enough; the Alice Pods and the Hive are in the same district." Asuka noted as they finished the long trek to the club. 'Hive' was right. The entire building glowed with honey-gold colored lighting, and a decorative metal framework covered the multi-story building with a hexagonal shell. The bouncers outside were mechanical Augs, just like Tracer said, but instead of the sleek carbon, human limbs that Shinji and Rei saw at Sarif Industries, these men used lumbering, insectoid models from Tai-Yong.

"I guess that's how Zhao is able to undercut David's prices so much." Shinji whispered to Rei. "His prosthetics are like a scalpel…hers are sledgehammers."

"Yes. I do (not) want a confrontation, here. It wouldn't go as easily as those Belltower thugs."

The bouncer noticed the group. "HEY! No entry without a pass-…Master Tong? You have guests?"

"Yes I do, and you'll let them in."

"Of course, Sir. Pleased to have all of you." He held the door as the six kids entered the building. Slow, bass-heavy music flooded their ears and their eyes adjusted to the bright golden light of the dance floor and drinking lounges they walked past the DJ stand, who was hurriedly managing tracks. Mari stopped in front of him, and he quickly noticed.

"Oh my god, babe, I am _so_ sorry, but I can't do requests right now. This playlist is loaded for the next six hours!"

"Well, geez, see if I give you a tip, tonight." She turned and walked away, the plugsuit that clung to every curve on her body showing the wiggle in her hips, exaggerated because Mari wanted to make sure the DJ was especially flustered by the sight. "Come on Kaworu, I'll let you buy me a drink."

"Aren't we underage, Mari?"

"Our UN identification will let us get away with _anything_. Besides, as seedy as this place is, I'll bet they don't even card!" She grabbed his hand, dragged him over to the bar, and waved the bartender over. "Two Golden Phoenix Slings, he's buying."

"Ohhh, trying to impress the girl, eh man? They aren't cheap, but you won't miss a single credit!" He stirred their purchase in front of them. "Two samples of quality, 120 credits."

Kaworu grudgingly paid, but the spicy-citrus drink _was_ refreshing. It wasn't the club's recommendation for nothing.

Shinji, Rei, and Asuka followed Tracer up the stairway to the upper deck of the club, into the VIP Suites. The upper bar –selling hundred credit shots- was manned by a cut and scarred old man with one cybernetic arm. His eyes lit up when the four arrived.

"Tracer! I already know, Belltower thugs get shitcanned by bunch of Kung-Fu teenagers. You three," he pointed to the teens, "One of my guys on the streets got cellphone pictures of you kids rolling Belltower. This makes me happy –I got no love for Belltower as it is- but then I find out that it's _my_ kid the Limey bastards try to hold up! Think about it. Old man tells his boy to run out and get his medicine for him, and this happens! I'm gonna reward you handsomely no matter what you say, but if you got anything you need, you ask."

Asuka spoke up while Shinji and Rei stood by. "We're breaking in to Tai-Yong Medical. What would somebody outside the law do to get in?"

Tong thought for a moment. "TYM has their own army. You gonna need guns, ammo, passcodes, a hacker, a contact, more guns-"

"We've got logistics from NERV. We can handle the combat part."

"NERV? You those…what they call you, 'Robot Children'?"

"That is exactly what we are." Rei spoke up. "You mentioned passcodes and a hacker?"

"Yeah. TYM security is good, real good. Fortunately for you, my boy is good with computers, and the rich and stupid doctors from TYM get piss drunk here and leave their stuff behind all the time. Tracer, boy, take them downstairs and use those TYM cards we picked up to give them door passes. This gonna be fun to watch…"

Tracer brought the trio down to the dance floor, and keyed a code into a door near the exit. It swung open, they travelled down a corridor passing the DJ's station and the barkeeper's freezer, and stepped down another flight of stairs to the basement and sewer access.

"You can get anywhere in the city from here. The smell sucks, but you can go to the LIMB Clinic, Hung Hua Hotel, Alice Garden Pods-"

"Really? You can get there _without_ being seen?" = Belltower's no doubt already looking for us! =

"Yes. If you leave through the sewer access door, climb down the ladder, then turn right at the first channel junction, and walk straight until you reach another ladder, you'll find the access to Alice Garden's laundry rooms."

Shinji and Rei saved the audio from this conversation, knowing they'd be trudging through the sewer very soon.

The boy led them into his father's office, cluttered with sports statistics and scores, a bracket tree with names, and a large reminder to place a huge bet on one of the competitors in next week's fight.

"Looks like you guys are big into gambling, too." Asuka read the odds for the various fights Tong was following.

"If it's one of the ways to make shady money in this city, the Hive's gonna be in on it." He walked over to his father's computer and logged on to it, opened a drawer on the desk and removed two plastic cards on lanyards. "Anytime we can get ahold of something with some leverage, be it a TYM employee's credentials, maybe a rival club's drink recipes, or a Belltower Commander's personal information for blackmail, my dad takes it. All I've got to do is change the names and positions on these ID cards, and it'll get you in the front door of TYM." He pulled two labcoats from a closet. "Rei and Asuka need to look the part if you're going to make it two steps inside the building. All I can create a convincing pass for is two college interns, so that's who you are. Any deeper inside the facility you need to go, you'll have to 'convince' the security. After how you handled those Belltower guys, I think you can do it…done."

He handed Rei and Asuka the two rewritten cards and their disguises. "So this'll get us through low-security door swipes?"

"Yes, just tell the employees that you're hosting your classmates for a day, and act professional. They won't even bat an eyelash at you."

The group returned upstairs, and Shinji, Rei, and Asuka found Mari and Kaworu on the dance floor doing some drunken variation of the bump &amp; grind. Asuka asked the obvious question.

"What the hell is going on, here?"

"Hey Princess! Two things: Angel Boy is still a hunk, and he can't hold his liquor! While you've been off cavorting with criminals, we've been enjoying the drink and dancing!" She caught Kaworu as he stumbled into her arms.

"The…the Gold-Slingin-Phoenix… iz good stuff. Try three or five!" He loudly burped and Mari roared in laughter.

"Yeah! Exactly! To hell with all this spy stuff, lets party all night- OWW!"

Asuka grabbed Mari's ear and Shinji and Rei balanced Kaworu on their shoulders. They led the pair down the stairs and opened the door to the sewer.

"Not just yet." Tong's voice caught the teens. "When you buy what you need from Peng, consider it on the house." He handed a credit card to Rei.

"How much-"

"5000. I owe you for taking care of my boy, and I want to see Belltower quivering in their boots." He left to let the teens contemplate their reward.

"You stumble onto one good deed and see what you get?" They entered the sewer…

…When the smell hit Kaworu's nose, he leaped out of Shinji and Rei's grasp, ran to the landing to the ladder down, and vomited three expensive drinks into the channel below.

"Smell…bad…sick…"

Mari walked up behind him. "Aww, poor baby, make sure you spit several times and get the taste out."

They climbed down and Shinji took the lead, playing Tracer's instructions to walk to the pod apartments as Mari helped Kaworu handle the sensory overload. "Hey, Shinji, did James Bond ever have to trudge through the sewers?"

"No, Mari, but he never had to work with _you_, either. We'll have to put up with it until we get there." The large 'ALICE GARDEN POD SEWER ACCESS' signs told him they were headed the right direction.

The walk ended at another ladder, which the group ascended, and they found themselves amongst the rows and rows of communal laundry machines, bathrooms, and shower stalls. Mari carted Kaworu off to a hand basin so he could rinse his mouth. Shinji, Rei, and Asuka followed the prompts to the courtyard, and looked at the hundreds of miniscule pod apartments arranged in circular blocks around the open social area. Dozens of locals were buying lunch from the multitude of meal carts that set up shop in the center. The conversations Shinji and Rei overheard and translated told them that the rent was low and the landlords didn't ask too many questions, and the majority of the nearly 400 people that lived here simply wanted the honest means to earn a better life in the supercity; a common dream was to one day leave for the paradise of the upper level of the Pangu.

Asuka approached a newsstand owner that was trying to get rid of this week's tabloids. "You speak English or German?"

"Oh…English yes, we get lots of American tourists trying to save on hotel fees-"

"Yeah, yeah, if you're finished hawking this weeks' printed drek, we'd like to find some more 'interesting' items to purchase."

"I do not sell items of vice."

"Good, you're an honest man. Now where's Peng?"

"Peng?"

"The arms dealer that operates out of this building."

"We do not allow such crimes, here- AAAHHH!" Asuka threw her arms around his neck and dragged him to the ground in a chokehold, then stabbed several nerve points with extended knuckles, drowning the man in harmless agony.

"You were saying? I can keep this hold for hours."

"AAh! He-he's in the janitor's closet just before the main exit! Please let me go!" The pain subsided when Asuka retracted her grip.

"Was that so hard?"

"I don't want to be a criminal! I just want this job! There are millions of people less fortunate than me in Hengsha!"

"Cry me a river. Here's a life lesson for you: Cooperate with people like me, and you don't end up in a human square knot. Argue, and we can make it hurt even more."

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry!"

Asuka left the panicked vendor and returned to Shinij and Rei.

"Was the torture really necessary?"

"Oh, I'm sure we could've found the guy without him," she pointed over shoulder, "but I saved us an hour." She walked out of the courtyard and switched back from the main exit to Hengsha, turning back in to the complex to follow the doors up to the janitor's storage. "Since you two have bulletproof skin, you go in first."

"Really, Asuka? Bulletproof skin?"

"Face it, Shinji, you're even more of a weirdo now than you were when we fought the Angels."

"And you're still a bitch." He rolled his eyes and opened the door. The guy inside looked like a gaudy pimp; gold chains, gold brooch on his collar, gold shirt under an onyx coat, and square sunglasses. "You're Peng, right. Beth DuClaire sent us."

"Very goooood…My stuff is best in town." The dealer's speech was strange, to say the least. "You need _guided_ rifle rounds, yes? I have 5 boxes. 7.62 NATO and 12 Gauge shotgun rounds? Got it! EMP, Phosphorous, and standard explosive grenades. Best of all, I have weapon kits for your stuff. 'Easy reload' modification, extended magazines for rifles, and a burst round system for shotguns."

"Alright…Our long and storied NERV career has left us loaded, so we'll take all of it."

"All of it? Illuminati woman told me to give you a discount, but since you buy so much, I'll give you _two_ discounts! Total price 40% off! I need 8400 credits from you."

"Seriously!?"

"125 special rifle rounds, 60 sniper bullets, 45 shotgun rounds, nine grenades, and five weapon mods. Normally 14000 credits."

"Okay, fine." Shinji handed over the card from Tong. "Full amount, there." Rei then swiped her card for the remaining balance. "Next time, Asuka, you're buying."

* * *

Now looking like ignorant tourists loaded down with shopping bags, the five returned to the apartment and unloaded all their property in their various rooms. They returned to the great room and divided up tomorrow's equipment.

"Okay, so there's no escaping the fact that we're invading a hundred-billion credit company, tomorrow, so we're in for the asskicking of a lifetime. Asuka, install these smooth reload kits on your SMG's, take two explosive grenades, and take one bottle of painkillers and a hypostim. The painkillers we'll all take together tomorrow morning so they can dissolve before we go to work, got it?" He received nods from around the room. "The hypostims essentially allow you to survive one fatal mistake. They inject morphine, adrenaline, and blood clotter near the site of a wound. If a round gets through your plugsuits' Kevlar, that's your lifeline. Mari, you keep practicing with the SCAR's barrel switching. If you get spotted, you and Kaworu will eventually have to face somebody up close."

"Yeah, I know."

"Take one EMP Grenade and one explosive one, and since you'll be far away from us, you can have two hypostims. Kaworu, feeling better?"

"Somewhat…"

"Install this burst mod on the shotgun, it makes it act like an automatic. Take one WP grenade: Use it only if you get surrounded. Since you're…you, you won't need a medkit."

"And you two get to hog all the rest?" Mari asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Rei and I each get one EMP and one phosphorous grenade, I get one medkit and Rei gets two, because I have a thicker suit of armor than she does. We bought several extended magazines for the FR, and we've got a lot of ammunition to load them in. Tomorrow, we're going to stay together and avert violence until we're attacked. We'll split into two groups when we reach open areas, so Mari can operate at a distance."

"Shinji, when did you learn to think tactically?"

"Misato taught me. Now, I say we go get dinner."

"Let's just hit up the meal carts, not like we can make ourselves out as tourists any worse."

They all went down to the ground-level courtyard. Several of the vendors were open and the grills were lit, with residents eating together and conversations and smells of Chinese life filling the air. The city, dark and dirty as it was, was still alive.

Mari tugged Kaworu over to a barbecue grill where a butcher was serving out chicken and pork cuts. "What would you tell us to get, chef?"

"Ahh, British girl. How's the tea?"

"Awful, trust me."

"I think you should get my chicken skeleton."

"_Skeleton?_"

The chef laughed. "The tourists always fall for the name; it's a big plate of leftover chicken that's had extra time to marinate. A little charred from the time on the grill, but it soaks up so much flavor that it's worth it. Cheap, too!"

"Alright, two of those."

Shinji and Rei found a vegetable cook who told them to get his Lover's Tofu –a large, flat tofu square on which some of his entire variety was cooked. The tofu absorbs the miasma of flavors, and it's a large enough helping to share.

Asuka, being wary of cheap tourist food, ordered sesame oiled noodles from a wok fryer.

They returned to the apartment, clustered around the television, and ate dinner in front of the TV, only to be shocked when a special news report was issued.

* * *

'_This is Eliza Cassan. Miraculous news from Nevada today, as the disaster at NERV Base 2 has been, in Mr. Bob Page's words, reversed. Page Industries had been contracted by the UN Special Agency to handle recovery after the power supply for a massive defensive weapon, Evangelion Unit-04, collapsed and exploded, blanketing the base in a region of destruction that theoretical physicists have informed me is called a 'Sea of Durac'. By detonating a smaller version of the power supply in the center of the epicenter of the disaster -a process Page named 'Applied S2 Impact', Page Industries was able to cause the Sea of Durac to dissolve in space. This is his statement on the success:_

"_This event, today, is the proof of NERV's wisdom for trusting Page Industries to clean up the Unit-04 incident. In addition to the Unit, Versalife pharmaceutical personnel are treating survivors of the original disaster. This is only one example of Versalife's commitment to human health and safety."_

_Looks like NERV made the right choice, selecting Page for their support.  
Remember, for the latest reports, always choose Live from Picus.'_

* * *

"I've got a bad feeling about this…"

The other four Children agreed.


	13. Trade Secrets

Answers: MonSTR- Welcome to FFnet! And I pmmed you about your comment, so thanks for fav-ing!

* * *

Chapter 13: Trade Secrets

* * *

= Oww! Hey! AAUGH! = * THUD *

Shinji looked up at the pale feet that kicked him off of his side of the bed. Her toes were cute to look at, at least, but the hardwood floor was a painful alarm clock for the morning. She slid from her side of the bed and walked over to look down at him.

"Why, exactly, did you find it necessary to kick me out of bed, Rei?" He asked from his crumpled position on the floor.

"You were asleep."

= Great. This is going to be one of _those_ conversations. = "And? I'd like to remain that way."

"I'm taking a shower."

"Okay, fine. You take a shower, I'll sleep."

"No, you're coming with me."

"…Why didn't you just say so?" His mood changed considerably after hearing that statement. He hopped to his feet.

"You're incoherent enough in the morning that you'd have had no idea what I was talking about. You usually can't speak a complete sentence until after you start cooking."

"That's Misato, not me!"

"How many times have you tripped over your own feet on your way into the bathroom?"

"I'm a light sleeper! You know how often I used to wake up from those stupid dreams in the middle of the night!"

"Yes, you have an endless subway train running through your mind."

Shinji groaned and rubbed his forehead. "How can you be so wonderful one moment then be totally irritating the next?"

"I have a post-high school education and an eidetic memory. I'm skilled at bringing up uncomfortable facts at inopportune moments." She started tugging him towards the bathroom. "Now come on, we're getting up early so the others won't bother us…"

* * *

Asuka's mood in the morning wasn't improved when she entered the bathroom door to see a damp Idiot and Wondergirl wrapped in each other's arms, sharing a poorly-fitting bathrobe. She turned about, marched into Kaworu and Mari's room, and screamed.

Mari jumped up from the training project she and Angel Boy were working on. "What the hell is wrong with you, Soryu!?"

Asuka's eye twitched. "Shin-…Blue…THEM!"

"So…translating that from psychopathese; you caught Shinji and Rei mid-snog and you got a glimpse of Rei's –presumably blue- carpet."

"YES!"

"I'm kind of jealous of them, finding the time for a morning session like that. Why can't I ever get any action?!"

"Because you have a disassembled rifle on the desk and I _haven't_ stopped my watch." Kaworu spoke from over her shoulder.

"DAMMIT! Come on, Kaworu, we've been running this drill for forever!"

"And if you can't handle a distraction from Asuka, how are you going to field strip this thing during a firefight?"

"I can manage! Old DeBeers knows that from experience!" She turned back to the parts spread she was assembling as Kaworu checked the time again.

"Every second you can't fire is another hole in the plugsuit."

"Shut Up! I know what I'm doing!" She closed the last of the several torx screws on the new barrel of her weapon, and shouted at Kaworu to stop the time.

"Three minutes, Fifty-Nine seconds. It should be entirely possible for you to do it in less than two."

"Soryu, keep your mouth shut! Kaworu, start over!" Kaworu clicked his stopwatch and Mari repeated the process on her weapon.  
One who understands their weapon, every component of it, uses their weapon as an extension of their own body. Repetitious training leads to understanding, and understanding leads to perfection.  
Perfection with the weapon leads to lethality.

* * *

Asuka made a gagging expression as Shinji and Rei emerged from their bedroom, dressed in their de-facto uniforms.

"Your jealousy is palpable, Asuka." Rei said, exaggeratedly leaning into Shinji to appear as an even more disgustingly perfect couple.

"Oh My God, you two…just…fight! Argue! Disagree on something! Two people can't _constantly_ act like perfect matches for each other!"

Exercising his mind for philosophy, Shinji decided to infuriate Asuka even further. "We disagree all the time, Asuka. Conflict does not entail 'fighting'. Conflict entails resolution, and as the greatest of questions must be answered with the greatest of conflicts, the smallest of questions are solved by the smallest of conflicts. Rei and I do (not) argue; we _discuss_. Ignorant extremists resort to shouting and insults, the intelligent seek consensus."

"Okay, Professor Douchebag!" Asuka waved her hands around, wildly gesturing at Shinji. "Forgive me for projecting my outrageous stupidity onto everybody in the room! I grovel in the shadow of your stupendous intellect!"

Emphasizing her play on words, Rei whispered into his ear. "I think you struck a NERV, Shinji."

"Bright idea!" Mari shouted over Asuka's ranting. "We should skip the warfare and just make some popcorn and watch Shinji and Asuka argue all day!"

"As entertaining as that would be, how about we discuss today's objectives?" Kaworu wrangled the teenagers back into some strange form of order. Shinji and Rei nodded and sat down at the kitchen bar, to seemingly start talking to themselves.

"It's still weird seeing you two talking on the radio without a headset." Mari observed. "Who're you calling?"

"HQ. We need to get Kaji off the ground for a quick extraction, and that means he'll need to be wheels up as of this minute…Ayanami to NERV Transport, Special Investigator Kaji...We need a no-landing extraction at the Hengsha upper-city executive landing pad for Tai-Yong Medical's world corporate center…ETA: Four Hours confirmed." She looked up and back to the rest of the team. "It's several minutes before 0900, Kaji will be taking off soon, and we have several hours before he'll make the city limits. Let's not waste it: The Jiu Schichang subway will take us to the employee entrance to TYM's lower building, we'll need to make our way up to the executive offices at the top of the Table to reach Zhao. I don't need to remind everybody that if interrogation fails, Termination is authorized. Shinji and I require our biofuel, and we all need to take a double dose of the painkillers we've received."

Shinji stood and began placing out drinking glasses for the group, scooping a measure of his and his girlfriend's powdered nutrients into two glasses and opening several Cyberboost bars to be consumed.

"The pills," Rei continued, "should provide six hours of blunted pain response. Amongst the five of us, Asuka and Mari are the most vulnerable. We'll be compensating by keeping the two of you close to those more capable. If the worst should happen, the injectors we received from LIMB will neutralize _one_ injury."

* * *

0930

The five emerged from the subway station to look on the LIMB clinic and the entrance to TYM's lower-city manufacturing plant. Enforcing the class divisions of the Chinese supercity, line workers, assemblers, and mechanics rarely ascended the tower, reserved for TYM's corporate staff and research scientists, who were able to enjoy the sunshine atop the Pangu.

"Asuka and I are in charge until we penetrate the facilities' security." Rei and Asuka kept their clothing and effects concealed within their labcoats, while Mari and Kaworu carried briefcases containing gifts for Zhao. Company identification cards hung from lanyards around the two young women's necks. "You three will remain silent until we are inside."

Asuka took the lead and strode up to the gate security station. "Julia Ziffer. Master's candidate for Humboldt University. Miss Hayashibara –undergrad from Tokyo University- and I are hosting three Fudan University exchange students." Her card swipe passed, granting her temporary nonsecure access to the facility. Her three students followed her in, with her blue counterpart bringing up the rear. The Belltower security guard at the gate gruffly nodded at them as he watched the automated security clear their passes.

"Julia Ziffer? Miss Hayashibara?" Shinji asked as they walked.

"German and Japanese voice actresses, Shinji. Unlike you, I actually pay attention to pop culture."

"And he fell for it?"

"I'm guessing that corporate muscleheads like him don't get out much."

They walked up a flight of stairs and came upon a pool of saline coolant several hundred meters long and wide, surrounded by catwalks with guard stations situated at intervals along the facility. Asuka approached a scientist overlooking the complex.

"We don't want to interrupt your work, but my students are visitors in the complex."

The researcher in charge was all too happy to take a break from the corporate grind and stood up to give them an introduction.

"Welcome! TYM manufactures physical prosthetics on both microscopic and gargantuan scale. As we design new devices, they must be test-deployed in massive scale before we can shrink them to human size. You students may have been born after the 'Second Impact' disaster; TYM was deeply involved in the construction of cybernetic machines used to reverse the effects of the Impact-"

"We _were_ born after it, but we're quite well read regarding our history. You're referring to the 'Mass Production Evangelion Series', Unit 7 through 16, correct?"

"…Yes, I was. Very impressive observation, you're very well informed."

"We're caught up in the current events of the era. We know that the original production run, Eva Units 0 to 6, were not built on an assembly line."

"That's right. They were built –one at a time- at facilities other than TYM, but once the design was standardized, the production was moved here to increase capacity. Now that the production run is complete, we can revert our focus back to human augmentation. It's fortunate that we can adapt the designs for the Eva Series robots into human limbs."

= So TYM bases their prosthetics off of the MP Evas…There's our SEELE connection right there! = "What about firms such as Sarif Industries? They use original designs for their enhancements."

"They also cost two to three times the price per individual component."

"So by reusing a design from an 80-meter tall robot, you're able to undercut the rest of the market by _that_ much!?"

"Not reusing, miss, _adapting_. There is a significant difference. We still have to spend significant research resources miniaturizing them, but it costs less than building microscopic components from conception -as Sarif does it."

"Well, thank you, sir. The connection between the Eva program and TYM is exactly the information we were hoping to receive." Kaworu emerged from behind Asuka and struck the overseer on the side of his head, knocking him unconscious.

"Mari, this glass isn't bulletproof. Prep your weapon and get ready to engage the security stations. Rei, what can you access from this terminal?"

Rei was focused intensely on the overseer's computer. "The ICE breaker software in the nanite biochip can flood any encryption algorithm with millions of attempts per second...the problem is the sheer number of binary values the encryption hardware in a modern central processing unit can generate, ranging from the predictable 4.2 Billion values on a 32-bit system, up to 1.7977 X 10^308th power in a 1024 bit encryption program."

"English, please?" Mari interrupted the blue genius.

"It can take a very long time to guess the numbers."

"And what will we be able to do once you 'guess your numbers'?"

"Exactly what we need to do. Unlock the doors, turn off the lights, maybe disable security cameras-"

"So...we'll have as much power as a janitor." Mari antagonized.

"It's more power than we have now."

"What do we do until then?"

"Wait, ensure our host doesn't die of asphyxiation, kill any Belltower soldiers who check on this office..."

They waited a few minutes.

"Anything we can do while you're being a computer nerd, Wondergirl?"

"If we leave this office, we'll be spotted and recorded by the security cameras in this facility, which will surely trigger an alarm. We don't have the power to engage every member of security in this skyscraper...Wait, I think I just broke in...I've read amongst the information security community that even experienced executives use simple passwords, but 0011 0000 0011 1001? Really?"

"Seriously Watergirl? A bunch of zeroes and ones? What the hell does that even mean?" Dammit! Mari was a soldier, not a mathematician!

"1-2-3-4-5"

"'12345'!? That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!"

"Admittedly, a _human_ would not inject a string of numbers as its first guess, but a brute forcing program begins its flood with numeric values. It was probably well-protected against a human, who would have to sit at the desk and type. I don't have to do that because the nanite network allows me to count to extreme values very quickly." The computer logged in to the plant overseer's account and brought up the interface for the automation controls for the plant floor. "Amongst the automated controls are: Doors, security alarm grid, and 'access bridge'?"

"Maybe it's that thing up there." Mari pointed to a catwalk high above the office. Rei toggled the control labeled 'Draw'. The bridge moved across the ceiling to a door matrix above the teens' heads. "...Cool. Send me out on it." She picked up her weapon and noticed an industrial ceiling ladder after exiting the office from the catwalk door. Climbing up to the bridge level, Mari removed the overcoat the plugsuited teens wore in public and spoke into the microphone in her glove, radioing her teammates. "In a semiautomatic configuration, I can put three shots into the air in a second, but I'll need a spotter. Any volunteers?"

Rei answered. "I have a solution." She opened the primary security interface and rotated the camera network to look down into the coolant pool. "If this facility was really used to construct Units 07 through 16, then that liquid will either be LCL or a simple deionized saline solution." She removed the labcoat, emptied the contents of her tunic's pockets onto the desk, and handed her customized FR-27 to Shinji. "Take over at this console." She stood and turned to leave.

"Rei, I know what you're thinking, and it's crazy."

"So? Stay here."

"Unlike _some_ people, I don't like crazy."

"That's why I'm leaving you in the office." She walked out, climbed the ladder, enabled the AquaLung and her thermal vision enhancement, and dove into the coolant. The cameras tracked the descent and security offices burst open, armored Belltower personnel and mechanical TYM security pouring out to cross the catwalks and surround the splash.

"Watergirl, you just lived up to your nickname." Mari rested her SCAR's bipod over the safety railing, and showed a menacing fanged grin to the densely packed collection of mercenaries, shouting and repeating orders in Chinese.

'_Was that a victim!?'  
_'_Looked like a fucking Olympic Dive!'  
_'_Quit discussing and extract that woman! We don't have time to argu-'_

"Boom, headshot."

'_Gunfire!'_ * BOOM *  
'_Security Brea-'_ *SPLATTER *  
'_Where is it-'_ * MULTI KILL *  
'_CONTACT! 6 'o clock hig-'_ *SILENCE *  
'_SNIPER-'_ *SNIPED *  
'_SHOOTER-'_ * SHOT *  
'_CRAZED GUNMAN-'_ * GUNNED DOWN *

"I am NOT a Crazed Gunman, I'm an ASSASSIN!" * BANG * "Yes, there's a difference, Princess! One's a job and the other's mental sickness! Shinji, you extend the bridge and move out, NOW! The guards are down but there's still two autonomous security drones patrolling the perimeter."

"And how do you expect us to get around them?"

"I don't know, run?"

"Seriously!? They're drones with machine guns!"

"We could disable them." Rei swam to a conduit pipe, grabbed hold and climbed up from the water onto the catwalk, and stepped over the corpses, finding handgun ammunition, UN Credit chips, and police gas grenades on the more heavily armed security.

"How?" Shinji looked from the office to the two catwalks along the perimeter of the coolant reservoir. The bots were at opposite ends of the walkways, gun barrels pointed down the aisles; aiming wouldn't even be a concern, as the line of fire would cut down anything on the walkway.

"The robots will be controlled by a security hub, and there are several of them in this facility. They are hardened against gunfire, but they'll target anything that attacks them. Mari, place a round into the robot on my side of the reservoir."

"And get pumped full of lead!? Girl, you crazy!"

"I don't intend to allow that to happen, now _do it_."

The heavy, armor piercing 7.62 millimeter round, despite being a popular and exceedingly lethal cartridge, did little against the titanium-plated robot. It rose from its position, compacted into the vague shape of a cube, up into a complex wheeled vehicle sporting a three-barreled, rotating heavy rifle.

"Rei, that only made it angry!" The machine took aim at the catwalk above and poured its barrage of fire into the walkway, the rounds chewing up the metal framework currently protecting the bespectacled young woman as she attempted to dodge the fire. "ARE YOU TRYING TO GET ME KILLED-…Wait, what!?"

Almost as soon as the robot began firing, it ended its assault, retracted into its normal, docile configuration, and rebooted.

"Watergirl, what did you do!?"

"After you redirected its fire, I ran to the nearest security office and accessed the security computer hub via one of our fallen adversaries' accounts. I was then able to add our portrait into the robot's IFF software, and –more importantly- remove the identification database for TYM's security staff."

"Once again Rei, English or Japanese, whichever you prefer."

"The robots are ours."

"Oh. Cool. So, the threat level as of now, is?"

"Nonexistent. Everybody rendezvous at the west security office nearest to the foreman's room."

Shinji, Asuka and Kaworu climbed down the service ladder to the catwalk floor. Mari returned from her sniper's nest to gather in the security office for this assembly area. They all looked over Rei's shoulder as she directed the two robots on a path out of the manufacturing area and into the data entry employees' cubicles of the next wing.

"That should give the security staff reason for concern. Silence, please."

The sound of gunfire and shouts of terror and pain bled through the distant halls of the facility.

"Now, we continue on. Our first task is to find an elevator."

Finding an elevator was more difficult than expected. The teens walked through the cube farm occupied by cowering employees and stepped over bullet-riddled victims of the robots' new programming, yet they hadn't yet come across any options to travel _up_ the skyscraper.

Asuka came across a dying Belltower mercenary. She grabbed him by his head and interrogated him.

"_You_ don't get permission to die yet, pig! Where is the elevator shaft?"

He wheezed and groaned around his gunshot wounds. "Y-…You aren't going…anywh-where…"

Asuka drew a hypostim and offered her pragmatism. "This little marvel of medicine will keep you alive and suffering. Either you tell us and you get the quick and painless way out, or you resist and we make your death last for _hours_."

He coughed blood. "T-take the corridor through filtration! The elevator there is for executives and safety inspectors to view our equipment…There! I-I've told you…now help me!" Asuka took mercy on the suffering man. The shot to his head was painless, and it killed him in less than one second.

Following the guard's instructions, the teens found themselves in an electrical room containing wiring routes and transformer boxes protected by barbed-wire fences.

"Hmmm…Safety inspectors _would_ have to look at all of this stuff…but why would a manager in a suit and tie want to walk through all this greasy machinery?" Asuka looked at one of the transformer boxes, its radiator fans humming with electricity.

"Probably because we're being led into a trap." Shinji deadpanned. He opened the elevator door and they all shuffled inside. Riding it up to the highest level it offered, they found the doors opening before a checkpoint, home to Belltower mercenaries and a long line of employees waiting to have their identification checked.

Asuka whispered. "I've got an idea..." She cut into the line of employees somewhere around the middle of the pack, behind an old man that looked like some form of executive.

* SLAP *

"YOU PERVERTED BASTARD!" Everybody in the hallway was now looking directly at her. "I'm a college graduate, not some love doll! Do not even LOOK at me!"

Several of the guards now approached Asuka and the terrified man. "What is the problem here?"

"This old freak just couldn't resist shoving a hand through my labcoat and groping me…you know…down there!"

"And you are?"

"I'm a graduate intern! This bastard is treating me like a sex toy!"

"I…I did no such thing!" The suit was –rightly- terrified. He started receiving stares of condemnation from the employees around him. "I've never seen this girl before!"

"All the easier to assault me, then, right!?"

"Leave me alone!"

"I'll leave you alone after security gets you out of my sight!"

The guards from the checkpoint decided to do just that. "Apologies, workers, but we will have to hold the line up while we detain this man." Two guards grabbed him by his arms and several more escorted them away from the checkpoint. Asuka smirked and waved the teens over, then turned her attention to the crowd.

"You all really want to wait for this to end? Skip the line and just go to work, I'm getting out of here." Quite a number of the stunned employees slowly began to nod and agree, and the crowd dispersed.

The teens gathered in the now-empty security checkpoint and looked at the hastily-abandoned computer terminal. Rei disabled the camera network for the floor, preventing an alarm from being raised in the future.

"This terminal has a floor plan for the facility…The next elevator leads to the upper tower…this building actually forms the center of the Hengsha Pangu, the table radiates out from it…Makes sense, considering TYM funds the majority of its construction. Above us are the cybernetics research facilities, then the executive suites."

They made their way to the next elevator, following Rei's map. This lift felt like it traveled upwards for an eternity, until they broke through the surface of the upper city. Lower Hengsha was eternally dark and dirty, as machine oil from the roof's labyrinthine network of machinery and plumbing leaked down the pillars and onto the structures of the surface. The upper city? It was a sculpted, living paradise. Glistening metal and glass towers rose cleanly from the ground, where they meshed with the cultivated forest and grass, in a human display of the marriage of nature and technology. The second supercity in the world was clearly proud of its artificial upper level.

The windows from the elevator shaft allowed the teens to look out over the panorama, Kaworu was the first to publish his thoughts. "Tokyo 3…The vast network of weaponry and equipment is on the top…The GeoFront is the pristine forest. It's like the two cities are inverted copies of one another."

"And if that's our evidence of the lifestyle of the upper city, everyone act professional. We don't know what we're going to encounter when we reach the laboratories…Keep your weapons concealed."

The doors opened on yet another panoramic view of the top, and the teens emerged to see suited executives and labcoated scientists gathered together in this public lounge. Two guards were situated at the far end of this hall, leaning on a vending machine and watching the new arrivals.

'_Three civilians…two staff. Look like guests.'  
_'_Just check their cards.'_

One of the security strode down the hall to the five.

"ID Cards."

Rei and Asuka took the lead. "My associate and I have valid ID. These three are guests."

"Are they properly registered for today?"

"We brought them to security down below, and- " *CRASH *

The guard at the end of the hall screamed and choked as he struggled underneath the vending machine. Some employees ran to it to try and render aid while others panicked and ran.

"I-I don't know! He was just standing there, and then-"

"It just went down and crushed him! Somebody could use one as a weapon if they wanted to!"

"It's killing him!"

"Somebody do something!" "We're trying…It's…too…heavy-"

"Please help him!" "We can't! It's 300 Kilos!"

"Everybody. Stand. Back." A teenage boy and a blue haired college student appeared at the back of the crowd. "Rei, good to know we ate our breakfast this morning."

She nodded to him. They took stances on opposite sides of the trapped man, and lifted. It hurt, the weight was still so much…Their arms and faces became streaked with mixes of red blood from dilated vessels and glowing blue from the electrics working at the limits of their strength. The vending machine rose…slowly…the trapped man was lacerated and punctured from the glass window and the mechanics inside.

"Get…him…OUT!" The other guard arrived and drug the mangled human from underneath the machine, and Shinji and Rei dropped it to the ground with another crash. The employees gathered around them were jointly amazed and horrified. The pair caught their breath and checked their power levels…it took a lot out of them. A first aid crew arrived with a stretcher. TYM had extensive medical facilities of its own, but even the prompt treatment he would receive wouldn't be enough to eventually save the man, who would go on to die several hours after the accident.

"How…how did you two, teenagers? How did you do that?"

"We are prototype augmentees." The blue one answered. Their entourage arrived as did more security to block off the scene of the accident and disperse the crowd. The guard checking their ID's arrived.

"You kids-"

"Don't thank us. If you had mechanical personnel on this floor they'd be able to do it, too."

"Well, sure, but-"

"Take care of all of _them_." Shinji pointed to the crowd, many of the employees still in various stages of panic.

"You're right! We owe you for this." He paid the group no mind as they left the scene.

"Lucky break for us…" Asuka noted as the emergency crew hauled out the fatally-injured guard. "As long as _they_ stay distracted…"

Kaworu made an admission. "I may have shoved, slightly…I didn't intend for it to kill a man, I just wanted it to fall over and make a loud bang."

The other four turned to stare at him.

"And nobody saw you form an AT Field? Kaworu, you sick, sick, genius."

The five walked into the research laboratory proper, various specialized offices networked throughout the hallways. They looked at the robotic arms in one room, a scientist would type a command into his terminal and an arm being tested would cleanly lift a barbell, loaded to its maximum weight.

"Just how strong is it?"

"Excuse me?" The scientist turned to the redhead that entered the room. "I didn't know they cleared guests today."

"We're not going to interrupt."

"No problem…The electric wire mesh making up the artificial muscle can support a linear factor of weight over 50 times its own. This two-Kilogram artificial Bicep can easily lift over 100 Kilos at will."

"Why aren't they in mass production?"

"Because the arm is significantly stronger than the human skeleton it's installed against. I'm here to create a skeletal reinforcement to allow this stronger prosthetic to function without ripping it off the user's shoulder."

"Sounds like a difficult problem."

"Yes, I may spend a good portion of my scientific career testing different treatments."

"What about the users who already have robotic arms?"

"Most of them are relatively weak, utilizing standard mechanical servo motors and a DC power supply. The electric mesh will behave as natural muscle fiber. The servos in a standard prosthetic allow it to move in a 2D plane. The mesh will offer the full human range of motion in an artificial prosthetic."

"How does Sarif do it?"

"The Americans have been focusing on shrinking the servos and making them more efficient. It's a faster, more convenient solution, but it doesn't evolve the science, as TYM's artificial muscle will…Would you young people like to see it?"

"What's 'it'?"

"The Lee Geng Theoretical Research Laboratory. It's where we develop the virtual models of our products before we begin machining them." The scientist took a break from his work and led the group through the sealed double doors of the high-security facility.

Scientists sat at computer workstations with wide, triple and quad monitor setups showing super-detailed graphics. The next, _next_ generation of TYM's prosthetics were being designed in this room, and in the center of the facility, a glowing, levitating image of a human being, fully augmented. Every extremity, his chest and waist, his individual organs, all artificial.

"This is the final step to Human Immortality, being developed in this very room."

The other four stood, rather impressed at the merger of machine and man. Asuka decided to get a comment in. "A hologram? Cool, I'll admit, but I prefer having a real body."

"The hologram is just a graphic. What he really is, is a human who has had every natural weakness replaced. His heart? Microfibral muscle like I just showed you. His brain? We are in the process of growing a crystal that conducts electricity and can form artificial synapses. We weave it around the neural tissue in the brain, and as neurons die of age, the crystal continues to transmit the electric pulse that makes up human brain activity."

"What about, perhaps, microscopic robots that would do the same job?"

"Possible, but much more difficult to mass produce. This is a simpler solution. The crystal would not require an artificial supply of bioelectric energy to function."

"So it would be grown throughout the brain, and exist there, _permanently_?"

"Exactly, and it would require no post-insertion maintenance. The other artificial components would last for decades, and they can be repaired or replaced. Our model here is Jaron Namir, an Israeli soldier nearly killed in the fighting over there. He's in a coma, on life support until we can create his new, artificial body. When we do that, as long as he keeps himself maintained, he'll be the first immortal human."

"One of your colleagues told us that TYM built the Eva Robot Weapons."

"Oh, yes, but that was quite a while ago, and it's actually quite easy to grow a synthetic skeleton or synthetic muscle cell. Artificial organs are usually _more_ difficult, but they don't require the incredible supply of proteins, calcium, other nutrients –what have you- to grow synthetic organs, especially on the gargantuan scale of an Eva robot. I assume you're familiar with the Asteroid strike?"

"We work with the people who used the Eva Units, so yes. Incredible, fascinating, no words match the scale you guys are shooting for, but we have a destination to reach, so we need to continue. Thanks for the sneak peek, Doc."

"Asuka, do you know where you're going?" Shinji asked her.

"We need to find out way up, so yes."

"Uhhh." The scientist interrupted. "Above us is the supercomputer floor, and _nobody_ has permission to go in, except the system administrators. As a matter of fact, the entire elevator system above this level is off-limits to regular employees and guests."

"It's a good thing we're _neither_, then." Asuka stated. She pulled her concealed weapons and fired into the air, causing alarm sirens to sound off, employees to panic, and elicit a response from the level's security.

"ASUKA! You just started a fight with us out in the open!" The five teens clustered around Kaworu, who now encased them in a geometric orange shield.

Mari dropped down, opened her briefcase, and began her process of converting her weapon to its close-range configuration. Kaworu held the shield and Rei took one of her specially-loaded magazines, threw her labcoat to the ground, and revealed her stolen assault rifle, the new targeting computer attached to the rear gunsight. The computer projected a crosshair onto the sight, and the word 'ACTIVE' revealed itself. She began inching towards the limits of the AT Field, reacting with flashes of light and a metallic sound as the level's security attacked them. Mari extracted the long barrel from the SCAR and screwed in the close-range model. After tightening the screws on the upper receiver, Mari loaded the weapon and took a stance beside Rei.

"KAWORU, DROP THE FIELD!"

The two women sprinted to opposite sides of the room, both of them ducking under workstation desks, occasionally trying to lean out to look at their attackers, moving in from the corners of the room and the level above, connected by several spiral staircases. Rei held the rifle out of her cover and blindly waved it towards one of the attackers until a beeping tone sounded from the computer. She fired, and the fin-guided flechettes flew up and over the desk to puncture the Belltower mercenary's helmet.

"None of this would have happened if your people had never attacked NERV." She stated as she glanced out for a look at the dead opponent.

Mari laid out, flat on the ground underneath the workstation, to look at the insectoid legs of some of TYM's augmented security agents. She pulled the pin from an explosive grenade and rolled it in between more than one pair of legs. The explosion destroyed their mechanical limbs and caused the security to be thrown around the room in heaps. She leaped from her position to shoot one augmentee that survived the explosion, he was now crawling along the ground, pulling himself along by his hands, struggling to aim a revolver at her when he was finally killed.

"Holy crap, it's like fighting a tank!"

Asuka shouted the actual purpose of her idea to her fellow NERV personnel. "Find somebody in charge! They'll have the security access we need!" She took Kaworu's shotgun from him and ran out from the shield as he briefly lowered it a second time. "Look for rank and grade on a uniform, get a close look at ID badges, do something!"

She noticed that a group of security would get choked into a line, and crouched behind the door of one of the stairways from the upper level of the lab and began blowing holes in Belltower soldiers as they ran, single file, down the staircase. "At this rate-" * PUMP * "-we're going to kill-" * PUMP * "-everybody in the building before-" * PUMP * "-we find the guy we need!" She stuck her leg into the doorway and tripped the next soldier over onto his face. He scrambled back to his feet to receive a kick to his groin. Asuka rolled him over onto his back and grabbed him by his hair.

"WHO'S YOUR C.O.?!" She stomped on his hand as he tried to reach for a weapon.

"GYAAAHH! He-He's not with us!" * COUGH * "His security office is on the next level! I-I surrender- AAUGH!"

She kicked him in his chest and threw him to the floor, wheezing and hacking up mucus.

Kaworu and Shinj split up and began following the women across the lab. Kaworu caught up with Asuka as she climbed the now-empty staircase, and awkwardly stared at her…

"I've killed Angels and Humans, Nagisa, don't act surprised when I give these _fleas_ what they deserve!" She handed the shotgun back to him and drew her TMP's. "We exit this lab via the second-floor hallway and find the next security office. The guard commander is there with access to the executive levels!"

Shinji, Rei, and Mari –all having heard the message- followed the pair out the doors on the higher level of the bloodstained laboratory.

Shinji read the nearest sign.

"DATA CORE.  
ARMORY &amp; TEST RANGE  
ELEVATOR: SECURE

I think we're at the right place. Find the security office and let's get inside."

* * *

"How do we tell if this glass is bulletproof?" Mari asked as she peeked out from around a corner of the hall to look at the security office. This facility took up a large portion of this floor, yet there was only a single agent inside, shouting orders to keep searching for the attackers into his office telephone.

"As opposed to 'busting in'," Rei pointed to Shinji, "follow me."

The pair ran as quickly as their dwindling power supply allowed, moving to the two separate side doors of the room. They simultaneously knocked, the commander took notice and began shouting into his phone again before drawing a weapon and moving to the door occupied by the skinny boy wearing a trenchcoat –presumably to make himself look bigger than he actually was.

The door opened, his handgun found itself on the floor, a Tazer unloaded its electrical charge into the security commander's neck, and Shinji coughed and spit up copious amounts of mucus as the Zyme's accelerating effect wore off. Shinji dropped to his knees and spit some more as Asuka directed Kaworu to carry the commander to a nearby men's room.

He coughed and choked before his vision cleared. "WHERE AM I?!" He roared out, only to find himself held, his arms in a painful position, by an unnaturally strong boy with red eyes and silver hair.

"The mirror and sink in front of you should've tipped you off, dumbass. Our three friends are making sure we have a nice, quiet bathroom to ask you a few questions in."

"I won't tell you terrorists anything!"

"Oh, we're the terrorists? Was I a terrorist when a Belltower sniper shot me in Berlin? Were Shinji and Rei terrorists when their CIVILIAN SUBWAY TRAIN was _attacked_?" She slapped him, and he tried to fight back, but couldn't move against Kaworu's Angelic strength.

"I've got no idea what you're going on about. My men work in this tower, and this tower alone!"

"Well, then I'll take it out on you anyway. You need to understand something: This is going to happen either way. You tell a lie, you get dunked. You act up, you get dunked. You are uncooperative in any way, you get dunked. If I feel like giving the order, you get dunked."

"Go to Hell!"

"…Kaworu, humans drown after six minutes underwater, right?"

"For a non-diver, yes."

"Seven minutes, then."

The Belltower Commander for TYM found himself splashed down into the full sink of water, the strong arm behind him holding his head below the water level, the faucet running full blast, flooding water into the floor below. He gurgled out and struggled, realizing that these _teenagers_ were willing to resort to torture to get what they want.

"You see, Asshole. We were perfectly willing to leave well enough alone after all that Angel shit happened, but you pricks just wouldn't let us live in peace. I survived a sniper –from Belltower. Nagisa here got poisoned –by somebody saying something about a 'Dragon Lady'…Ring any bells?"

Kaworu dragged the man up from the water. "OKAY, OKAY!" * HACK, COUGH * "The _Dragon Queen_ is our security callsign for Zhao Yun Ru!"

"Good, you're seeing things our way. Give us every access code we need."

"N-NO!"

"Splashy splashy, Kaworu!"

The man screamed as he experienced the act of drowning a second time. Knowing they needed the man's intelligence more than his corpse, Kaworu pulled him from the water after five minutes.

"Shinji and Rei? They got it the worst of the bunch. A bunch of _your guys_ in FULL FUCKING COMBAT EQUIPMENT blew up their train –with them still inside! Two kids! A railway train! ROCKET PROPELLED GRENADES! Want to know how they're still alive? The guys over at Sarif saved their lives! They actually _came to Japan from America_ to save Shinji and Rei, and you pieces of shit are the ones that tried to kill them! Splash, Kaworu!"

"NO! GOD NO! AAAUGH-" * GURGLE *

"WE CAN KEEP THIS UP ALL DAY, WORM!" Asuka's hellish roar actually caused Shinji, Rei, and Mari to stick their heads in to the bathroom to get a look at the frightening scene in front of them.

"Asuka, this…this is going too far-"

"If he cooperates, there's a slim chance he might live to wake up tomorrow. That's more consideration than these bastards were going to give you and me!"

Kaworu pulled him from the water. "ALRIGHT!" * CHOKE * "Take-take me to my desk…I'll give you everything." The mercenary's face was broken and weak, not to mention sopping wet.

"And if you try to double cross us-"

"I won't 'live to wake up tomorrow'…I heard you."

"Good boy."

Kaworu dragged him back to the room. Asuka kept the shotgun pointed at him through the entire process, while the commander wrote the administrative access codes to a portable drive. He handed the drive to Asuka.

"You…you have my word. Those are all valid codes. You won't kill me, I know, but when she finds out…I think I'd rather be dead."

"That can be arranged, you know." She struck him on the side of his neck, knocking him unconscious.

The team unlocked the armory attached to the commander's post. Apart from the standard handgun and SMG ammunition that the corporate security is found wielding, a second lane was open, and it extended back, nearly to the outer wall of the skyscraper. Two items stood out: a long-barreled rifle attached by some form of hose to a sleek metal backpack, and an awkward implement that looked more like a bent fork than a weapon. The teens looked down the range, and Asuka tried to hoist the backpack weapon, and failed.

"What the hell!? It weighs, like, a ton!"

"Perhaps it is intended for use by those with strength enhancements?" Rei walked up behind her. The color of her arms shifted to a slight blue tinge, she handed her rifle to Shinji, and she struggled to strap the backpack onto her small frame, but she stood with straight posture and held the barrel in her hands, and there was something, to Shinji, completely irresistible about watching Rei hoist and wield a power weapon.

Kaworu read the inscription on the backpack's surface. "Railgun, Tungsten Electromagnetic."

"_Railgun?_" The group asked as one.

"See if there is a power switch on the backpack." Rei aimed at the faraway target and backdrop, and altered the weapon from SAFE to FIRE.

Kaworu found the switch, and the backpack began to hum with the sound of several cooling fans. A small monitor on the barrel lit with the number '25', and Rei put her finger on the trigger.

"Stand Clear of the line." Rei squeezed, and the air was blown out of the room as the tungsten rod tore from the weapon and shattered the target _and_ the safety backdrop.

The team all stared, dumbfounded.

"Zhao is going to love this stuff!" Mari shouted as she picked up the strange weapon in the other firing line and read the label on its side. "Portable Energy Projection System…ever heard of one?" She looked at her other teammates, they all shook their heads.

She stood in the firing line, aimed at the target, and a glowing, sparking electrical bubble emerged from the fork-like barrel and traveled down the range to the target. The bubble burst, and arcs of electricity burst out in every possible direction upon impact with the target. The teens smelt the ionized air and felt the hair on their arms stand as the voltage passed through the air.

"Here, Kaowru, it's a lightning gun!" She handed the weapon to the Angel and walked back to the security terminal. "The door to the Data Core server room is open and the elevator to the executive suites is in the same hallway. Let's see if any of these passwords will get us on their server system, we can probably find some good stuff."

The signs to the Data Core room led the Children to a set of cleanroom double doors that filtered and circulated the air in the facility. The area was protected by a laser grid that focused on a revolving mirror and projector in the center of the room.

"Any idea on how to deal with the lasers?"

"…As a matter of fact, yes." Shinji drew one of the black-market EMP grenades from a pocket in his coat, pressed the button on the casing for the weapon, and threw it across the floor to the emitter in the room. Arcs of lightning burst from the small device and the laser grid emitter began to accelerate and intermittently cease fire until what was left was a rapidly-spinning, haywire light device like one would see at a rock concert.

The Data Core interface was kept behind a blast shield inside an even more protected zone of the server room. The team arrived at the small office…There really was no need for the strange monitor layout, other than some clever design decision. The computer screens were arranged via extensive decorative metal brackets strewn about the room, all focused on a central platform where a user could stand and be immersed in data. Frankly, a desk with a keyboard and mouse would be more efficient.

Asuka plugged the portable drive into a port on one of the monitors, and the system welcomed the administrative user. A synthetic voice asked her for a command.

"Uhhh…"

'_Apologies, 'Uhhh' is not a recognized command._'

"I know that! Wait! Search 'SEELE'."

'_Documents regarding 'SEELE' not found. Extend search to Internet locations?'_

"No…Search 'Instrumentality'"

'_Documents regarding 'Instrumentality' purged approximately 96 days ago. Attempt Document Recovery?'_

"Uhhh…Estimated time to completion?"

'_Estimated time to completion: 17 Hours.'_

"Uh, no. Search for 'Lorenz'"

"Encrypted MP4 file regarding Lorenz found. Decrypt and run?"

"Yes."

* * *

_Synthetic S2 Core miniaturization is complete, prepping surgical bots for implant._

_And the spare Core?_

_Still on hand._

_Is the Chairman ready?_

_Indeed._

_I feel for Lorenz, really. He's been planning for this moment since the discovery of the Scrolls._

_And yet, the Scrolls did not predict the survival of the Final Angel, nor the Death of Lillith –especially death due to the son of Ikari and his sheer force of will._

_That surprises even me. Ikari manipulated his son to the point that he would be a living tool. The hammer that drove the nails into humanity's coffin. The son broke that mold, a feat of strength that I still cannot believe._

_You think he did it on his own?_

…_The Unit-00 Pilot, the other nano-aug prototype. She survived as well, even against Ikari's plan for her death. She was becoming too unpredictable, so he never would've allowed her to live beyond the Fifteenth Angel. The son destroyed that prophecy as well._

_About the son, and the Unit-00 Pilot, Sarif's information security chief has prevented TYM's contract hacker from breaking their security. This fellow goes by the handle 'nucl3arsnake' and has blocked Windmill at every turn._

_So you haven't been able to steal the design for the Nanite Biochip._

_No. Still, at the moment, the implantation is more important._

The video feed shifted to an operating theatre. An old man wearing some form of augmented reality visor was draped on the operating bed, a network of robotic arms prepared to perform surgery.

_The Fruit of Knowledge finds its home in the mind. The Fruit of Life dwells in the heart. He is the first to lay claim to both. Aquinas spoke of the mythical City on the Hill. With this power, we will be crowned its kings…_

…_Better than kings. Gods._

The Children were shocked and appalled when the surgical bots removed Lorenz's heart and severed the vessels running to it. The surgery bot then placed a small, orange sphere inside the cardiac cavity and sewed the arteries and veins into certain locations on the sphere. The surgery bots were pulled away and the sphere glowed a bright red light and caused Lorenz's incisions to heal and his chest cavity to close. He stood, of his own free will, and turned to look at the camera.

* * *

"This is…"

"Bad. Is that really-"

Kaworu answered her. "Yes, Asuka. The S2 Cores of the Mass Production Evangelions have been miniaturized and used for implant into the SEELE members. To eliminate them, we must attack the S2 user with an AT Field."

"Only you can do that!"

"Then I'd best be prepared for battle..."

The elevator up to the Executive suites arrived at a museum of sorts. Examples of TYM's expertise in the field of medicine, and displays of the various mechanical augmentations they designed and sold filled the hallway approaching the CEO's penthouse, clearly intended to impress and educate when Zhao was hosting guests. When they reached the door, Asuka stopped the team and held them there.

"Listen up. I say we abandon all pretense of an investigation and just put a tungsten rod in her head, right Wondergirl?"

"I suppose that can be arranged." Rei adjusted the backpack.

They entered the penthouse. It was everything the home of a multibillionaire would expect it to be. Greco-Roman architecture made up the design of the real estate, floor to ceiling windows flooded the area with light, and complex geometric sculptures decorated the room.

The five teens crept forward, approaching the staircase up to a landing making home to Zhao's business office…She wasn't there. The office area looked similar to Sarif's. Several monitors were tuned to the security layout of the skyscraper, more than one had an up-close view of TYM's research programs, and at least one television was tuned to a stock floor report; TYM was still ahead of Sarif, in profit if not quality.

Another staircase led to Zhao's living quarters. They ascended and stopped at the door. Rei and Shinji couldn't make out a human outline due to the object radiating infrared light in the center of the room.

"It's possible she has a space heater, but I don't know how our vision augmentation is receiving this much interference-"

"Welcome, Children." A voice sounded throughout the facility. "I must say, you all made it farther than Page expected. He told me to allow you to make it to Hengsha and you'd all lose _here_. With NERV's strength broken, the Singularity will complete without any interference."

"So it's a 'Singularity' now? Instrumentality was too hard for you SEELE fucks?!" Asuka shouted to the ceiling.

"Oh, we very much intend to rule mankind as gods, but data communication is far easier than de-evolution and re-evolution."

"And how the hell are you in any way qualified to be a ruler, god, or a fucking secretary!? You don't get to decide the future for anyone!"

"I'm qualified to rule over mankind because _I_ have the power to do so."

The large blast door to her living space rose from the floor. Rei targeted the young Asian woman, seated with her back to the teens, at a desk in the center of the room.

The tungsten rod, moving at eight times the speed of sound, shattered against the orange hexagon behind Zhao.

She stood and turned to them. She held a small orange sphere in her hand; it excreted a miniscule amount of a red liquid in her grasp.

"LCL." Rei stated, recognizing her mother's blood. "That is a miniature S2 Core."

"Indeed. An AT Field, in my very hands. An immovable object, ready to stop the unstoppable force."

She stepped forward, to everybody's surprise, and thrust the Core into Kaworu's chest. The boy screamed and dropped to the floor, writhing in pain.

"KAWORU!" Mari screamed. She rushed over to the fallen Angel's side as the other teens turned to open fire on the now defenseless woman…

She should have been defenseless, but the blast door fell to the floor before they could fire.

"KAJI!" Asuka shouted into the plugsuit radio. "MISSION FAILURE! MISSSION FUCKING FAILURE! It's a panic room! She's got a goddamn panic room!"

"I'm nearing the city limits, now, Asuka. Don't be surprised. David Sarif and the Professor both have one, too! Forget about Zhao, just make sure you did some damage to TYM-"

"We Didn't! They-they made an S2 Core…it's a weapon now! IT'S KILLING KAWORU!"

"We've got more problems than that!" Shinji shouted over everybody. TYM security poured into the facility, an entire army of them.

"FUCK ALL OF YOU! YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Mari shouted as she picked the PEPS from Kaworu's side. She aimed and launched a ball of electricity right into the crowd of soldiers, the electrical explosion instantly acting on every soldier with the effect of a Taser. With them all stunned to the ground, she ripped Rei's FR-27 from Shinji's side and placed the computer crosshair over every soldier, pouring guided, automatic fire into the pile of unconscious security. She emptied the 30-round magazine and reached into Rei's tunic to pull out another, shredding the dead bodies with 30 more flechettes before switching back to her own weapon and putting semiautomatic rounds into the corpses.

Shinji pulled the weapon from her hand. "MARI, STOP, STOP! They're dead! That won't save Kaworu! Set…plant your high explosive grenades at the base of the door…let's try to blow it open. If anybody deserves that treatment, it's Zhao."

The blast door lived up to its name. Five grenades dented and burned the structure, but it held.

"Rei?"

"Absolutely, Shinji. Clear the area."

The railgun discharged. The door held, again.

"…WHAT!?"

"KAJI WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"I'm descending onto Zhao's landing pad. Two Page Boxguard robots patrol this area, so-"

"We've got EMP Grenades. Kaworu's got…I can't explain it…there's an S2 Core stuck to his chest and it's weakening? Poisoning him? I don't know what's happening!" Even with the distortion over the radio, Kaji could tell Asuka –_Asuka_\- was terrified.

"Carry him out if you have to-"

"ALREADY TAKEN CARE OF, RYOUJI!" Mari growled. She was carrying Kaworu in a bridal hold, and still had 'that look' about her face. She was ready to kill any body at any moments' notice.

* * *

Even the gargantuan Page Industries Boxguard robot can't overcome an EMP attack, and the two robots securing the landing pad fell quickly to Shinji's explosives. The VTOL lowered to surface level and opened its doors; the teens clambered inside, trying to keep Kaworu comfortable as they all got themselves locked down. Kaji launched upwards, climbing out of Hengsha airspace, only for the bird to shock and rattle as an airburst missile went off within its kill range.

"Shit, we've got bandits! One, two, three! 2 o'clock, 6 o'clock low and 7 o'clock low! You kids hang on!" Kaji ended his ascent and rotated the VTOL engines forward, flying conventionally. He gripped the controls and rolled the bird over, diving into a Split-S. The three armed Belltower aircraft pursued him down to city level, flying between rows of skyscrapers and directly over one of the roadways built atop the Pangu. The unarmed aircraft began taking gunfire as Kaji attempted to outrun Belltower in the close confines of the highway. "We can't take this much damage! We're an unarmed transport!" he shouted over the radio across multiple public channels.

"Inspector Kaji."

"What is it, Rei, I'm kind of busy-"

"Open the loading door."

"What!?"

"Do it."

"Alright! Alright!" The VTOL's side opened. The teens were blown around in their harnesses as the 400 knot wind blew in their faces. Rei took aim…Miss. Miss.

"Slow down and fly straight!" Miss. She looked at the monitor: 20 shots remain. Miss. 19.

"Shinji, reach into my pocket and feed me a Zyme vial."

"That's kind of gross, Rei." Asuka said through her radio.

"Watch." Shinji opened the bottle and poured it into Rei's mouth. The drug slowed the world down to the speed of glacier, and Rei took aim again. The unfortunate Belltower aircraft was torn to shreds from the inside out as the Mach 8 rod pulled the nose of the airplane out through its tail. The remaining two began to pursue the VTOL more closely and Rei targeted another. The wing was torn from the body, the remainder of the doomed aircraft spiraled in to the surface of the Pangu. "Third target is fleeing. Repeat, bandit 3 is bugging out...I feel sick." She said as the drug wore off.

"I think we can drop radio silence." Kaji said as he reached the ocean. "NERV-Japan...NERV-Japan...No response? Seriously? Wake up, Ritsuko...Kids, looks like NERV doesn't want to give us a homecoming party..."


	14. Homefront

Answers:  
Vent- Snoipin's a good job, Mate!  
Fleight- If you notice, none of the civilians receive fatal injuries.  
iyaoyas- Your first few sentences perfectly nail my opposition to Shinji/Asuka. She treats him like shit. On a lighter note, I'm having trouble fitting in a Blazing Saddles joke, but it'll happen...

* * *

Chapter 14: Homefront

* * *

Several weeks ago, Undisclosed Location, Nevada, USA

A gargantuan, silver-and-white painted being lay on its back, as a young man spoke from a pedestal mounted on its abdomen. Hundreds of individuals formed the audience facing him, every single one of them reeling in disbelief at his message.

"Yes, I'm telling you all the truth! Six months ago, this facility was swallowed up by the earth, and the organization that _supposedly_ existed to ensure your safety and livelihoods did nothing! NERV abandoned you after the Unit-04 Incident! They simply preferred to act like Branch 2 never existed; they just went on, business as usual! It wasn't until Page Industries arrived to assist you that you were saved!"

A critic shouted from the audience. "That isn't true! NERV has procedures for total facility losses, and in some cases, hiring a contractor like your company _is_ an option!"

"But they didn't hire us as a contractor. They washed their hands of you and gave us full reign of this facility. Fact is, NERV doesn't need you anymore. While you all were drifting in a Sea of Durac, NERV halted the Third _and_ Fourth Impacts! Without you!"

Bob Page smiled to himself as the crowd murmured to itself. = It's a small lie, but the best thing about small lies is how they always _almost_ seem to be true. Besides, NERV hasn't done a very good job taking care of Branch 2 lately, anyway. =

"Okay, but you're still only trying to whip us into a blind frenzy!"

"That's true. But I'm doing it because your superiors are out of line. They handed you off to Page Industries and never looked back at you all! I'm whipping you into a _righteous_ frenzy, because your superiors have treated you like excrement. It wasn't NERV that developed the S2 Reversal that saved all of you, it was Page Industries. It wasn't NERV that's treating your comrades in our hospitals, right now, it's Versalife. Right now, Page Industries and Versalife need your support. We saved Unit-04 and Branch 2, now we're going to bring Unit-04 online, properly. We're going to bring Branch 2 to the glory it deserves. We're going to write the Branch 2 NERV staff into Page Industries' roster, and we'll begin the process of activating Unit-04."

The crowd, properly deceived by the brilliant businessman, cheered.

* * *

Tokyo-3. Present time.

Kaji's VTOL broadcasted the access handshake on 141.15, and no response was returned. As he flew into the outskirts of Tokyo-3, he saw…nothing. The towers were up, but no weapons were extended, the streets were void of traffic and pedestrians, the neon jungle was turned off, and the various navigation lights atop the buildings and the traffic signal network was shut down.

"Kids…Something isn't right here." He brought the VTOL to just above street level, over one of the red-cross marked intersections and sent out the handshake broadcast again. The street didn't open. "I'm flying to the secure train station. I'll put us down in the parking lot and we'll ride back. Somebody can scrape up the VTOL later."

Their arrival at the deserted train station was no different than their original arrival in Tolyo-3's airspace. The normally-busy offices were devoid of life and the trains were out of the station. Departure and Arrival signal boards were turned off and the urban jungle was drenched in the heat of Tokyo-3's endless summer, and the lack of power signaled a lack of climate control.

"Oh my god! I can't believe we're walking around a blacked-out Tokyo-3 in the middle of a heat wave! Again!" Asuka shouted to the sky as Kaji looked over the station directory.

Rei inspected a blank computer screen, and then opened her NERV Emergency Manual. "If the city really is without power…again…we should make our way through the emergency access tunnels. Shinji, would you open that door to Route 7, again?"

Shinji groaned as he thought back to the first time they had to use the emergency tunnels. Asuka forced him to lift and drag every heavy object that impeded their progress, including manually cranking open Route 7's heavy blast door, and this was before he'd been cursed with his superhuman augmentations! "Sure, Rei. Not like I've got 7 percent of my bioelectric charge remaining or anything…"

"Oh, sure, Pups. Like it's so difficult for you." Mari was carrying the catatonic Kaworu, who had fallen from consciousness at some point in the flight. Mari could feel the heat radiating from the S2 Core that was fused to his chest, but she silently thanked God that Kaworu still had a pulse, however faint it was to her touch.

Shinji took the lead and walked the team to the maintenance access corridor containing the Route 7 blast door. He cranked the lift, and to its credit, it was much less difficult than last time. They entered, and followed the white light at the end of the tunnel…

…That light wasn't the ground-level exit. It was the edge of the severed tunnel, a lethal fall's distance above the ground. The group had mistakenly walked into a dangling ledge, and the open end of the tunnel offered them a bird's eye view of the glassed GeoFront and the nonexistent NERV HQ. The pyramid and the barracks tower were both gone, burned to the ground, alongside every other object in what used to be the GeoFront. And the surface, the replanted forest? Glass.

"My…My god…what-WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!"

This location may be the seat of NERV's organization, but –more importantly- it was their home. Now, it was…gone. They all stood on the edge of the tunnel, staring.

One of them finally spoke up. "What do we do? This…this is almost…surreal. This isn't happening-"

"We return to the surface, and we fly to Matsushiro. If the JASDF hasn't _also_ been destroyed, then we'll demand some answers." Kaji gained some composure and turned the Children around. "We'll get to the bottom of this." He said as he ushered them back to the top.

* * *

Matsushiro Air Base, not far from Tokyo-3.

They all looked at the single NERV aircraft as it approached within visual range.

"They would be arriving just about now, it wouldn't have taken them long to realize something was _very_ wrong about things." Misato wiped yet another tear from her eye. She'd figured she would run out of them by now, but she still couldn't stop silently crying at the loss of their home, and it would be almost unbelievable if it just wasn't so _wrong!_ "Unit-04…If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it…_It shouldn't be possible!"_

"But it happened, Misato." Ritsuko stepped up to her side. "And there's no use trying to change that fact. The least we can do is tell them we're safe-"

"MEDIC! MEDIC!" The Interim Operations Director stepped from the VTOL as it landed. She carried the Fifth Child in her arms; he was comatose.

Dr. Akagi abandoned her derailed train of thought and took off running towards the craft. Misato and the Professor stood, the pain of having to speak to the team of Children mounting by the second. Ritsuko arrived by Mari's side. The wildcard girl turned to her, and didn't say a word, she simply pointed to the glowing object in Kaworu's chest.

"A synthetic S2 Core. It broke down Kaworu's AT Field and now it's put him in a coma…I can't believe I'm saying this, but I've got a plan. Mari, follow me." She turned and led the girl and victim towards Matsushiro's command building.

The other four, Three Children and one United Nations Representative, slowly walked to Misato and Professor Fuyutsuki. When they arrived, Misato dropped her normal military hardness and fell into Kaji's arms, sobbing during her account of what happened.

"We…We got out…That's what matters…We enacted standard Angel Protocol and…evacuated Secondary and Tertiary Personnel and their families…before we launched…Unit-06…Most of Tokyo-3 is still away, but…Kaji, we got them out!"

He held her tightly as he answered. "Then you did good…Screw it, the GeoFront can go to hell if the people are out safely…They should learn (not) to mess with the girl that survived Antarctica."

"I…I love you four…Thanks for making it back in one piece-"

"Speaking of things that aren't in one piece...Professor, what the hell happened?"

Fuyutsuki turned to the group and addressed them all. "I'm still having difficulty convincing myself that it happened. _Evangelion Unit-04_ flew in on some form of large wing-"

"Like the MP Evas used…Werner Squadron engaged them when they were deployed, but we couldn't cause damage…Unit-04 is using SEELE's developments."

"Yes. It gave a valid entry handshake and descended through Tokyo-3 to the GeoFront…It began attacking the Pyramid, and we launched the Fourth Child in Nagisa's Unit-06…The frightening factor is that Unit-04 scanned as having Nagisa as the pilot-"

"A Kaworu Dummy Plug." Rei answered.

"…Yes." The Professor's face fell. "And apparently God himself is punishing me for even knowing what a dummy plug is, much less being involved in their creation…Rei-"

"Don't apologize, Professor, you've done nothing I need to forgive."

"Would you believe how much that sentiment means to a poor old man like me? Unit-04, once thought to be lost, was saved by SEELE and turned against us. The Fourth Child, not an experienced pilot, mind you, fought with fire in his blood…Unit-04 and Unit-06 fell to each other, but –thanks to Mr. Suzuhara, not a moment before the evacuation was complete."

Shinji spoke up. "Where's Touji?"

"He's in recovery at the base hospital. His ladyfriend and that bespectacled lad that keeps trying to smuggle his camera onto NERV property are there watching him."

"Then Rei and I are gonna be late for the debrief."

"I expected as much. Go see him if you want."

* * *

"I don't believe it! You were synched 1 to 1 with Unit-06 and you just went all Judo Master on that other one's ass! I didn't know you could even fight that well!"

Touji winced at the pain in his gut as Hikari softly rubbed his back, the worried expression on her face not having left since he woke up. "I…I really can't, Sukes…I just did what…it's like I did what the _Eva_ told _me_ to do, not the other way around-"

"That is exactly what happened, Pilot Suzuhara." Shinji and Rei entered his recovery room.

"...Hey guys, forgive me if I don't get up. I feel like I broke my everything."

"Then you're officially an Eva Pilot. Welcome to the club, you can now be as miserable as we are."

"Holy Crap! Shinji! Rei! You two look like freakin assassins or something-" Hikari grabbed Kensuke by the ear, shutting him up.

"Your outfits are kind of, well, dark." She said.

"It's necessary. The professor told us you did well, Touji."

"'Well', Rei? I got my ass kicked."

"So did Page's Unit-04."

"Yeah, but not until both of us went nuclear and vaporized NERV's base! Have you seen it, it's like all gray concrete now! AAHGH-…Sorry, it hurts when I get loud." Hikari steadied his shoulders as he panted for breath.

"We have seen it, but the postmortem opinions say it didn't happen until after the evacuation was complete. That's what matters."

"Rei," Hikari started, "you guys were gone for just two days-"

"Our enemies expected it; in fact, they lured us to China. A brilliant play, if it wasn't so…depraved."

"How'd you do it, Shinji? Keep getting back in the Eva even after you both almost died."

"Hikari, when you're piloting an Eva, you're at the controls of the most powerful, most dangerous weapon ever created, by anything. Know what that meant to me? Nothing, absolutely nothing. I hated it, I was terrified, I wanted to quit…Actually, I did. Twice…I came back, twice, because I knew I was the only one who could fight in Unit-01."

"It meant nothing? Shouldn't it be easy to fight in the world's deadliest weapon?"

"Sure, I had an unstoppable giant under my control, and I didn't feel any relief in the slightest. Piloting the Eva taught me that even if I was deadly and invincible, I was still scared of everything. Bravery is not a function of firepower."

"Dude," Kensuke said while Touji and Hikari listened intently, "that was like the most badass thing I've ever heard anybody say, ever!"

* * *

Matsushiro Air Base, due to its close proximity to Tokyo-3, served as the primary liaison point between NERV and the Military. The vast population of Tokyo-3, of which the majority of the working-age citizens made up NERV's secondary and tertiary staff, was too large to be evacuated by NERV's equipment on its own. When an Angel attacked with enough risk to warrant a full evacuation –as Misato's 'Bomb Angel' did- then the Japanese Army loads citizens into transfer trucks, the Navy begins ferrying people out to international waters, and the Air Force airlifts people to Matsushiro. At this moment, the base was packed to the brim with civilians occupying the blast shelters and auxiliary service buildings. Food courts, post exchanges, fitness centers and rapidly-emptied hangars for VTOL aircraft and Matsushiro's complement of Mitsubishi F-2s and F-15J's. Most of the combat aircraft were still circling Tokyo-3 at 60,000 feet while the VTOLs were out of gas and lined up on the parking ramps.

The base's large command center was home to a thousand-seat auditorium, now filled with NERV and JASDF personnel for the debrief of today's successful failure. Colonel Katsuragi had recently cleaned up and prepared herself for the long presentation she was about to give, and Colonel Aida –the JASDF's official buffer point for operations requiring their cooperation, also happened to be the father of Kensuke Aida, Shinji's hyperactive camera nerd of a friend. NERV's primary staff, the Children, and Matsushiro's command, control, and reconnaissance staff currently occupied the theater, as a projector screen rolled down to open up the debrief.

"I'm just going to get straight to the point. Thanks to the coordination between the JASDF and NERV, we achieved a successful evacuation, following Angel Protocol. The bad news," Misato clicked to the first slide on the presentation, "is that our house burned down." The image showed the glassed GeoFront and the razed NERV pyramid and barracks.

"There is a possibility –hypothesis, perhaps- from Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, stating that only the surface was destroyed, and the underground facilities can be excavated. If she is correct, both the MAGI supercomputer and Evangelion Unit-01 can be saved." The next slide showed a closeup, showing the flat layer of the surface. If the theory was correct, all they'd have to do was crack the glass and get down in the facility to begin recovery.

"Colonel Katsuragi," some conventional military critic cut in from the crowd, "with the threat of the extraterrestrials gone –by your Commander's estimation- why should we continue with the operation of Unit-01? It is just as dangerous as the giants that destroyed the GeoFront." The officer brought nods and grunts of affirmation from his peers.

"That's just about enough from you." Colonel Aida talked over the lower-ranking officer. "Unit-04 was activated by –and we have decisively confirmed this- one of the organizers behind Special Forces' false flag assault against NERV HQ. Do any of you want to suffer that level of humiliation again? I, for one, am grateful that NERV continues to cooperate with us; they had the United Nations' permission to cook our political goose, yet they treated us with grace and mercy…well, those of us who didn't directly attack the base, anyway. On that note, torture opponents have yet again been denied an investigation on the status of the prisoners of Special Forces' attack, and I plan to stonewall the requests for an inspection indefinitely. That being a black operation, the boys who went into NERV HQ lost the JSDF's protection."

"I will say that the prisoners _were_ evacuated along with other personnel." Misato answered.

"Good, but we can't condone this plan of yours."

"Why not?"

"Japan invades America? That didn't work out so well the last time."

"It's not 'Japan invading America', Major Idiot. NERV has intimate cooperation with American entities, and the JSDF and the Pentagon are close allies. This is going to be NERV invading NERV."

"I seriously doubt that-"

"Area 51 was all but given to NERV for free when Branch 2 was established, and Branch 2 just happened to be home to…" Misato rolled the next slide, bringing a portrait of Unit-04 onto the screen. An IT Tech then halved the screen, moving the portrait to the left and bringing up a video player on the right. "Unit-04 was stationed at Branch 2 when the disaster happened, and NERV –in our self-admitted foolishness- contracted Page Industries to handle the recovery because we needed to handle the aftermath of the Japan Land Defense Force's attack." Misato glared at the delegation of Army Commanders present. "Anway, we never knew Page and Versalife would not only _actively reverse the disaster_, but also bring Unit-04 back online."

The video player rolled the battle footage.

* * *

_A massive flying wing drifted through the upper stratosphere, the stealth elements of the aircraft prevented it from being detected until it reached visual range from Tokyo-3. Matsushiro Air Base's reconnaissance staff alerted both JASDF Command and NERV HQ about the Unidentified Flying Object, but it was too late to begin diplomacy or countermeasures. The bay doors of the aircraft opened, and ejected an active Evangelion Unit. The pilot –or essence thereof- directed the Unit to broadcast NERV's handshake key to Tokyo-3, causing one of the intersection entry doors to open, creating a path to NERV HQ. NERV's countermeasures targeted the decidedly unstealthy Evangelion, the cannon fire and surface-to-air missiles doing no damage to the weapon's AT Field. NERV's command staff confirmed the invasion and enacted Quick Response Angel Protocol, bringing in the nearby elements from the Army and Navy to handle the evacuation while NERV's own transports coordinated with the Air Force detachments at Matsushiro for the airlift. Section 2 extracted the Fourth Child from the arcade he and two companions were occupying, and they were all brought to NERV HQ, Touji running to get his plugsuit as Hikari Horaki and Kensuke Aida were escorted to NERV's command bridge to be supervised by Sub-Commander Katsuragi._

_Unit-04 fell through the bay doors and landed on the GeoFront's surface. It had orders to destroy this location, and-_

_Its communication equipment picked up a transmission. "We're skipping a normal startup, Launch Unit-06 for Intercept!"_

_A similar beast shot up on an elevator to the abused land the invader stood on._

"_Listen Touji, we're evacuating Tokyo-3. If you can't beat this thing quickly, you buy us time to get these innocent people out of here." VTOLS began lifting off from NERV's facilities and trains left the facility en masse, climbing up the rails built into the GeoFront's walls. On the surface, transport trucks and ships left their ports, loaded with the first wave of refugees._

"_Dr. Akagi!" Hyuga's voice entered the conversation. "Unit-04 is giving off brainwaves similar to…the Fifth Child? Isn't he in-"_

"_No time to speculate. Unit-06, show our guest to the door."_

"_Sure thing, Doc." Touji directed Kaworu's personal Evangelion to stride up to the silver demon. Unit-04 regarded the hindrance to its orders and delivered a gut punch to Unit-06, the AT Field before it denting into a cone under Unit-04's fist. Touji's stomach turned inwards as the force rocked his insides and caused him to keel over, but the field held, and Touji suffered no physical injury. "Nice to meet you too!" Unit-06 kicked Unit-04 in its groin, with enough force to launch it off its feet into a ballistic arc, landing on its back hundreds of meters behind its stance. The cyborg sat, stood upright, and mechanically walked up to where Touji had drawn Unit-06's Progressive Knife, the electrical current inside the knife manifesting as plasma enveloping the blade, burning at thousands of degrees Centigrade. Touji stabbed the AT Field, the force of the knife and the heat of the plasma cutting a small hole in the hexagon. = See? This is easy! = Touji groaned out as he felt the strain on Unit-06's skeleton and muscles as he tried to breach the field._

_Touji was too preoccupied by his offense, and failed to defend himself as Unit-04 grabbed Unit-06 by the arm and ripped, hoisting a foot and planting it on Unit-06's chest. Touji's overconfidence was torn away as the feeling of his shoulder's imminent dislocation gave him an awakening into the world of reality. This thing was much more ready to fight than he was._

"_TOUJI! Swing your Left arm up under Unit-04's to break the hold, and then kick its ankle to send it to the ground!" Misato shouted orders into his head._

"_Ugh…okay" = AAUGH! = Unit-04's grip was broken loose by the upward chop from Unit-06's free hand, and the kick Touji delivered put it back on its back. The Progressive Knife was once again at Unit-04's ribcage, as Touji attempted to puncture the field and give himself access to a lethal strike on his opponent's body._

_Two pylons rose from Unit-04's shoulders, and four missiles fired, exploding against Unit-06 and blasting it into the sky, to tumble down into a heap several hundred meters away._

"_Well…who would've thought they decided to keep Unit-02's shoulder rockets." Misato said to the bridge crew. Shigeru reported that the Evacuation was proceeding, and NERV HQ only had a skeleton crew working. The millions upon millions of people above them would still need time to get out of the city limits. "Touji, retreat and wait for a weapon elevator."_

"_A rifle won't do much against that thing, Colonel Katsuragi!"_

"_No, but a MATADOR-XL certainly will!"_

_The weapon elevator rose near where Touji was crouched, and a 900-millimeter recoilless rifle extended from the bay. Unit-06 hoisted the gargantuan weapon up to its shoulder, and Unit-06's visor gave Touji a target lead and bullet drop indicator. He locked Unit-06 onto the enemy Evangelion currently charging towards him and fired._

_The ballistic missile-sized round shot forward, leaving shock diamonds in the air behind it. The round crushed its penetrating rod against the AT Field, and the explosive shaped-charge inside sent an arrow of liquid metal through Unit-04's stomach. Unit-04 was thrown back, off its feet, and landed on the ground, unmoving._

"_WWHHHOOOAAAAA! I have got to get me one of these!"_

"_You like it, huh? We developed it after we realized we couldn't keep using all the electricity in Japan to power the Positron Rifle. Wait, WHAT?!"_

_The sucking hole through Unit-04's abdomen didn't stop it from sitting up, then standing again._

"_But-but-but the HOLE! How could it even-"_

"_The power of an S2 Core. Looks like the round was too low. We'll ship you another one up, but you'll have to buy us some time."_

"_Colonel! NERV HQ Evac is complete, skeleton crew is gone! Tokyo-3 evacuation is autonomous; we're no longer needed to coordinate! I say we beat it to the Commander's private hangar!"_

"_Agreed." Misato picked up a handheld radio. "Touji, we're evacuating HQ. The Ammo Elevator is automated, so don't worry, just wait for it to arrive. We're gonna be preoccupied by getting out, so don't expect a call from me for the next 10 minutes."_

"_And what happens if I die before then?"_

"_Then I'll have to explain what happened the second time you got in to an Eva. But that's (not) going to happen."_

_Unit-04 began a slow, wounded, ungainly walk towards Unit-06. Touji decided to be proactive and stomped up to it and began to grapple. The two clones of Adam resonated, and the AT Fields sparked and shorted, and flickered out of existence. Unit-04 twisted Unit-06 by its shoulders, causing Touji's Unit to topple down, and Unit-04 lunged down to rip away at Unit-06's armor. A loud ding signaled the ammo elevator's arrival, and Touji struggled to roll away from the being currently trying to crush Unit-06's collarbone._

"_God I hope this doesn't hurt as much as I think it will!" He decided to forgo the launch tube, and crudely cradled the round by Unit-06's side. With his free arm, Touji punched the MATADOR round's firing cap. Touji was blasted backwards, tumbling towards the Pyramid's front courtyard._

_Unit-04 shuddered and sparked; its arms and legs glitching and attempting to move. A red glow shone from its chest, and Touji got a radio call._

"_TOUJI, EJECT! NOW!"_

"_OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD!" Touji fumbled with the handle on his plug's controls as a white light enveloped him. A second explosion erupted from the battered Unit-06 as the entry plug's escape rockets failed to reach a minimum safe distance. The plug was blasted out of a stable flight path and began to spin and tumble across the sky, cartwheeling as it landed. The boy inside was rendered unconscious._

"_TOUJI!? TOUJI?! TOOOUUUUUJI!"_

* * *

"Fortunately, a recovery team found the plug, dented and burned as it was, but was able to get Suzuhara out. He had several contusions and took more than a few hard hits, but he took Unit-04 out, as well."

"Along with everything else in the GeoFront!"

"How would you like to have two nuclear blasts go off on Matsushiro's territory? So, as a colleague, I must advise you to Shut Up." A few of the officer's colleagues laughed at Misato's response.

"And you _know_ that Page Industries is in on this?"

A computer translator converted a new woman's French to Japanese. '_Unfortunately, yes. I had no idea that Page was working to bring Unit-04 back to life, but he, Zhao Yun Ru of China, and Chairman Lorenz of the United Nations Security Council, Germany, have all been trying to destroy NERV since before Special Forces' failed attack.'_

Beth Duclaire stepped from Misato and the podium, to sit beside Asuka and Kaji.

"Your proof is adequate, I suppose," came another voice, "but won't your counterattack have the same conclusion?"

"Ikari and Unit-01 have significantly more experience."

"Then the Corps of Engineers will begin excavating a shaft to NERV's underground levels as soon as we can deploy the equipment.

"Fantastic. We're taking back Area 51."

* * *

Kaworu floated, quite nude, in a tank of LCL. Unlike the time his mind was synched to the Kaworu-model dummy plugs, this was not some technological device. It was simply a vat full of the oxygen-rich liquid. Ritsuko would occasionally look him over and note down more information. Whenever Ritsuko _wasn't_ looking, Mari was stealing decidedly _non_-scientific glances at the supernaturally handsome boy.

"Kaworu, can you hear me?"

He nodded, weakly.

"However you want to do it, drift, swim, whatever, into these two loops we're lowering. They ensure we'll get you out quickly when the procedure is over."

Two leather straps were lowered into the liquid. Kaworu drifted up and nestled himself in the loops.

"Listen carefully, Kaworu. Two electrodes are about to enter the LCL. They're going to contact two points on your chest, and when they do, you're going to feel more pain than you've ever experienced in your short life. When the current flows, form your AT Field and push against the Core. Push with strength you didn't know you had. When the Core separates, we get you out."

He nodded, weakly, again.

"It's a good thing you were able to siphon the LCL from Fourth's entry plug." Mari said as she prepared her implements: A defibrillator, an injector of synthetic adrenaline, an injector filled with morphine, and one of LIMB's hypostims.

"Yes, with Lillith gone, we have to conserve the stuff, now. Kaworu, get ready."

The electrodes came down. Kaworu screamed…oh, how he screamed. But he also strained, and pushed, and an orange hexagon, actually, _two_ orange hexagons formed, pushing against one another. The Core is a living thing, after all, and it _wanted_ to preserve its bond to its host, but the host could generate an AT Field of its own, and it now narrowed, narrowed, narrowed, until it was a sharp cone, which stabbed through the Core's field, speared the Core, and caused it to explode above him, and the underwater explosion resulted in a tsunami of LCL flooding the room as Kaworu was raised up from the tank.

"HE'S GOING OUT, CLEAR!" The second electric shock brought his heart back to life, and the adrenaline now entering his chest ensured that it remained that way. The pain subsided due to the morphine entering his arm, and the hypostim was unloaded into the depression in his chest the Core had left behind.

* * *

He had passed out at some point after those shots, and woke up with a weight on his chest. Mari, in the chair next to this bed he was on, had slumped forward, and was sleeping in a rather uncomfortable-looking position, with her leaning onto him. He weakly shook her awake.

"Huh…wha-…Hey, Angel Boy…Crazy made it work, she got that Core away from you."

"Yes, I remember that _quite_ well. You waited in here to give me that news?"

"Well, I wanted to see you wake up…I needed some proof that you'd make it through this, that Core was killing you."

"Nothing I haven't dealt with before."

Mari's expression changed for the worse. "Really? Did you _really_ just say that, Kaworu?"

"Death isn't something that concerns _me_."

"And why does that matter? Just because Rei has also 'died before' doesn't mean she won't act concerned for her own safety!"

"Rei has too much to protect and lose, a vulnerability I don't have."

"Why, you don't have anything worth protecting?"

"I have my education and my particular set of skills, not terribly useful now that my Evangelion is gone…"

"Oh…that's what's bothering you."

"No, Unit-06 was no longer needed after I decided not to follow SEELE's Instrumentaltiy. I no longer have anything to offer…The scientists at TYM created a weapon capable of killing the last physical god…In fact, he's already dead."

"What the hell does that mean!?"

Kaworu raised his hand towards the mirror hung in this recovery room. He grimaced and grunted out, and nothing happened. "If you can make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him."

"...While we were chasing low-hanging fruit in China, Page and Zhao had plans to take NERV out, completely…They didn't count on Touji being in Unit-06, or else the damage would've been even worse…Unit-04 kicked down the anthill, but the nest is still underground."

"Exactly, but it's up to Shinji and Rei, now…I've got nothing to offer, anymore."

"Where the hell did that idea come from!? Just because you apparently don't have an AT Field-"

"I've yet to see whether or not I still have a god's strength."

"So what if you don't? Neither do I!"

"You can succeed without it, same as the Second. I am not like you."

"So? You can still stand, you can still see, you can still shoot-"

"I can most likely (not) lift an armed and armored soldier by his neck with one hand, anymore."

"So? Neither can I."

"I also can't protect you. My AT Field is how I overpowered Belltower, I know for a fact that I don't have that power, anymore…When Zhao's weaponized Core was torn from my flesh, my power went with it."

"In the future, that just means you can't throw your hands up and stop the hail of bullets, we'll have to _think_, rather than just rely on an orange wall."

"You really have no concern that I was beaten down by my own power, do you?"

"Not a damn bit, Kaworu."

"What's kept me alive throughout his endeavor is what was expected to finally kill me-"

"Seriously, so what!? What this means is you have to actively avoid getting injected full of Sarin and you'll have to rely on urban combat tactics instead of a shield so you don't get shot. You know, things we've dealt with our whole lives since we're not supermen like you!"

"If I fail to protect you or Asuka during-"

"Soldiers watch their comrades fall all the time! If you can't handle knowing someone will die, what did all that pragmatism you learned from SEELE give you?"

"I ignored it in favor of my value of human life and Lillin culture."

"Ha! Lillin culture, what a crock. When I met you, you know, after getting Unit-02 transferred to my name, you were definitely the best looking guy I'd ever seen, but you were also exceedingly polite and refined…None of that matters because our enemies are basically royalty. Sure SEELE taught you etiquette and culture, but who are SEELE, again? Beth –admittedly a spy on our side- is the current ruling class of the Illuminati. She lives in a mansion! Zhao? We were in her penthouse; it was like some kind of future-Renaissance blend. I'm sure Page is equally pretentious! There's no point in valuing 'culture' when your idea of it is what's practiced by our enemies…Look, Kaworu, I know I come on kind of heavy-"

"Understatement."

Mari glared at him. "But I do it because, unlike the Three, I don't need to find some deep meaning in my life…Rei may feel better because piloting gave her some 'bond' to other people, but so what? Do other people define who she is? No, she has all the power to choose who she wants to be. It just took Shinji knocking the Bastard's influence out of her before she realized that...Shinji was a little better, I guess. He wanted a family to be part of, and Unit-01 brought him to Misato, and he _thought_ that it would get him back to his father. You know what really happened? It taught him that he didn't need Gendo, at all! He gets to choose who he values for himself, now!

Princess I feel sorry for. 'Oh, my mommy died so I'm gonna pilot Unit-02 and be a total bitch to everybody I see to prove that I don't need people so that I can never be hurt again!' God what an idiot. If you're concerned about being let down, stop holding the world to standards so high that even _you_ can't meet them!"

"What about you, then? If you say that you _don't_ use an Evangelion to overcome some basic character flaw-"

"I do it because I get to be at the controls of a gargantuan, super-complex cyborg machine with enough firepower to blow up the moon! I don't care if you can feel the sympathetic injuries, getting to be an Eva Pilot is AWESOME!

Plus, I get to meet cute guys." She lecherously grinned towards Kaworu.

"Mari, wait! Mari I-I'm still injured! Mari, MARI!"

* * *

Undisclosed Location, Nevada, USA

A human being floated in vertical tube, filled to the brim with Branch 2's supply of LCL for Unit-04. A body in the tube beside him was in the process of improving its cohesion.

= We don't need the Tabtha facilities. The NERV personnel at Branch 2 copied the design perfectly, and these cloning systems are functioning without any problems. =


	15. Two Destinations

Chapter 15: Two Destinations

* * *

Misato's eye twitched. There were-

= 13? 15? …When did my house become an insane asylum! = Misato covered her eyes as she looked at the people in her apartment. Shinji, Rei, Asuka…sure, they already technically lived there. But now, Kaji was here…Ritsuko, Mari and Kaworu hadn't returned from the hospital yet, but they'd be there too, eventually, and this _wasn't_ considering the other poor souls who used to live in the GeoFront but now had to find space on the surface of Tokyo-3. All of the lower-ranking NERV staff; Section 2, NERV's infantry, the Eva ground crews, various administrative staff…they all lived in NERV's barracks, and those facilities –thankfully evacuated- had been burned to dust. Misato found herself going above and beyond the definition of 'generous' as Shigeru and Makoto entered her front door to gawk at the madness in Misato's apartment.

"Uhh…We can probably get a hotel room somewhere-"

"No, it's-…it's okay, boys…Shinji's cooking dinner, so make yourselves at home…"

Misato whimpered to herself as her home became occupied by two more maniacs.

There was a bird running around, squawking in panic at the sudden presence of all these _people!_ And it was so _loud!_ All Penpen wanted to do was go to sleep on Rei or Misato's lap like he did every night, but now…this was crazy! Did he eat an endangered tuna and manage to piss off Poseidon himself? He ran into the kitchen to dive into the cabinet Rei opened as she extracted the spice mixes to add to the enormous stir fry wok Shinji was preparing.

Life was, well…life, on the first day that people began to refill the city after the battle between Eva Units left NERV as the victim. Shinji and Rei operated as a well-oiled machine, preparing enough food for the army that would be staying for the foreseeable future. The raw population of the city and the GeoFront below it proved to be a logistical nightmare, experienced first-hand by Misato. She and Kaji didn't actually live together yet, so he stayed in his dormitory at NERV HQ. Ritsuko used to have an apartment affixed to her laboratory, now part of the ash pile making up NERV. The bridge crew stayed in barracks, and Mari and Kaworu lived in the base's officers' quarters. And now, they were all going to end up right here.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Rei went about the room, offering drinks to everybody present. The girl came up to her.

"Water, no, Rei. Beer, yes."

Rei glared, she'd have none of Misato's typical behavior. "This is no evening for drunken raving, Colonel Katsuragi."

"If you think I can put up with all…this…" Misato waved at the entire room, "_without_ drinking, you've got another thing coming, sister!"

"Most of the people here just lost their homes, Misato. We need to be compassionate hosts."

"Look, I know…But getting shitfaced helps me forget that it happened-"

"Shinji spent more than the majority of his life running from reality, Misato. Do you want to do that too?"

"…No." Misato _hated_ when Rei argued, because she was _always_ right! It's infuriating!

"Then you just worry about staying sober and being sociable. Shinji and I will handle the logistics for the evening."

"Logistics, Rei!? You're talking like this is a troop movement-"

"An army marches on its stomach, and we've got an army, don't we?"

"Very funny."

The front door opened to reveal Kaworu in between Mari and Ritsuko. He walked with the help of a cane and support from Ritsuko, while he and Mari held hands, something Shinji and Asuka didn't overlook.

"Wait…Fifth and Four Eyes…Are you two getting along!? Are you trying to pull a prank on us-"

"No prank, Princess! Me and my own personal Angel are better than ever!"

Shinji saw the gleam in Mari's eye. The same energy he noticed in Rei when she woke up by his side in the morning. "There-…There's no way…You and Kaworu didn't-"

"Of course not, ya perv! Unlike you and Watergirl," Mari smirked at the Pup and his squeeze, "Kaworu is still too weak for anything like _that_. We just had a few really meaningful conversations over at Matsushiro. But, Rei, I'll bet my boyfriend kisses _much_ better than yours does!"

"We will (not) be trading our examples to test your 'theory', Illustrious."

"Ooh, last name basis, huh? It's not my fault Shinji doesn't have a silver tongue."

"No. Just…no." Asuka would _never_ get that image out of her now-corrupted mind.

Ritsuko groaned at the tidal wave of teenage hormones about to crash through the room, and left. Mari laughed at the other teens and dragged Kaworu to an unoccupied sofa, avoiding the chaos and watching their counterparts continue working to feed the house.

"You know I'm jealous of them?"

"What do you mean, Mari?"

"Seriously, Shinji and Rei spend like every minute of every day together –even more so after the attack, they're going on month 7 or something, and they haven't gotten bored yet…I know I've liked you since I met you, but you and me never _did_ anything-"

"Considering the type of people we are, it's hard for things to get stale. Name all the people in the world who fight monsters from biologic robots? Who carry experimental nanotechnology inside their minds? Who _used_ to be immortal physical gods?"

"I guess none of us are gonna be cursed with a normal life, huh?"

"Precisely. Sociable though you are, we Six are outcasts; we _don't_ fit into the world of the average citizen, or even the average NERV employee."

"That's dumb, Kaworu. We're robot pilots, not ex-cons!"

"The Eva changes you, Mari. Every time you enter it-"

"It might make us into jaded and disillusioned teenagers, but that would've happened anyway."

"No, Mari." Her refusal to take his wisdom seriously grated on him. "It changes _what_ you are. The pilot sacrifices a just a sliver of their humanity to it every time they enter the Eva…More than a sliver in cases of emergency. The damage is cumulative."

"You're talking about Shinji when he killed the Fourteenth, and after that…being absorbed."

"A firearm is a weapon under the control of its owner. The Eva is a body without a brain. Its pilot surrenders their mind to the Eva so that it can become complete, a sentient being. Every time the sync is broken, you don't get the entirety of your mind in return."

"Wouldn't that give us amnesia or something?"

"Memory isn't particularly threatened; but empathy, restraint, reason and sanity…"

"We become less of a soldier and more of a weapon."

"Shinji's father counted on his son's weakness. He didn't think that Unit-01's tendency to go berserk would rub off on him."

"And Shinji went from, well, Shinji…to some roid-raging bastard when Rei was attacked inside Unit-00."

"Think about his changes since then."

"Well, when he and Rei were attacked…they kind of jumped into this augmented assassin thing with both feet."

"Out of desire or necessity?"

"…Knowing Shinji, he does it because he doesn't like the idea of anybody being able to hurt Rei. Kind of like how you were about us and the AT Field at Tai-Yong."

"As opposed to your seeming lack of self-preservation." Kaworu answered, in deadpan.

"Soldiers don't get the luxury of self-preservation, Kaworu. We might get the option, no, the _possibility_ to make it out alive, but I've been ready to die since Unit-05 was functional."

"Is that true, Mari? Or do you simply not understand the magnitude of your death. You aren't like Rei or I. Our progenitors gave us the ability to create and destroy this world, to return from death…You would simply cease to live."

"So? If I can't confront that reality, what can I do? What do I deserve to do? Just because death sucks is no reason to be afraid of it. Hell, Shinji was never really afraid of dying; he hated the sympathetic injuries and the thought of failing. He thought failure meant his friends would hate him…he got better about it since he learned that idea was bullshit."

"If you were to die at the hands of SEELE-"

"I'd make sure to take one of them with me."

"They would make sure you suffered, first-"

"Some people are _in_ to that kind of thing, Kaworu…Hey, Kaworu, you want to _hurt_ me?" She made sure nobody was paying them any mind and leaned over him, grinning devilishly.

"Mari! I'm still too weak-" *MMPH-…mmmm*

"Sorry Kaworu, but those lips of yours are just so inviting…"

* * *

Shinji, Rei, and Misato brought the people in from the various rooms and made space throughout the living area. The three men were given a folding table, the dining table was occupied by the Children, and the bar was home to Misato and a set place for Ritsuko, who returned late for dinner, pushing a wheelchair occupied by a young woman wearing some combination of sunglasses and ear muffs.

"Rits! That's-…She should still be-"

"She's here under my observation, Misato; she's still sensitive to light and noise, so keep it down. Unfortunately for you, that means there's one more person here for the evening."

Misato whispered to Ritsuko. "Should she be anywhere near Rei?"

"I don't know yet."

"How many breaches of scientific and medical protocol are you committing right now?! She should be in an environment-"

"That has been recently vaporized, correct?"

"There has to be a safer place than here-"

She removed one of the earmuffs, wincing at the noise from all the guests. "Thank you for allowing me to be a guest, Colonel." The girl looked up at her; her large, innocent eyes visible through the shades.

"Maya…that's sweet of you to say, but you're not safe here-"

"Doctor Akagi told me that there would be no where else to go."

"God, why me? What did I do now? Maya…she's probably right, but you're not finished with your psychological conditioning yet. Have you been given medical clearance for _anything?_"

"The state of emergency nullified such orders. Other individuals from my ward have also been released to their families."

"Always on top of things, huh, Maya?"

"There is no excuse for laziness; I will not recover by sitting in a room and staring out a window."

"Oh really?" Ritsuko chided. "That's exactly what you did during the evacuation; you wouldn't budge an inch until all the other patients were given some form of assistance. Don't you ever do that again! You scared me out of my skin!"

Misato was taken aback. "Maya, you didn't leave until all the others were gone?!"

"There were individuals present with conditions worse than mine."

"That-that's very brave…I suppose I should be mad at myself for being surprised, you always did manage to exceed our expectations."

"It was the right thing to do, Colonel-…SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!" Ritsuko and Misato spun around to see the individual that set Maya's fragile state off. Rei stood, like a deer in the headlights, as she reeled from the shouting that accompanied Maya's presence. "YOU SAID SHE WAS KILLED!"

"MAYA, NO! LILLITH WAS KILLED! It was up on the viewscreen; you watched it! That girl you're screaming at isn't Lillith!" Ritsuko blocked Maya from the stares of the guests as the girl convulsed from panic.

"I…I am…I deserve Lieutenant Ibuki's resentment." Rei dropped her eyes and hurried away from the scene, loading the dishwasher with the utensils she was carrying, then quickly retreating to a section of the apartment away from Maya's sight or earshot.

"Screw this," Misato growled, "time for a little exposure therapy." She marched into the room Rei had fled to and dragged the girl out by the wrist. When Rei was brought before her, silent tears were already rolling down her face.

Maya shivered in her seat and Ritsuko knelt down and glared into her eyes as Misato dragged the depressed girl back into her presence. "Rei, is there anything you might want to say to Maya?"

"Uh…yes." Rei dropped her gaze, trying her hardest not to be seen while trapped in Misato's iron grip. Rei could probably break free, not least because of her artificial strength, but the current situation made her feel cold, small, and weak. "Lieutenant Ibuki, you don't have to…like me or forgive me, but please do not hate me. I don't deserve to be forgiven for what I did to you. I…I acted in selfishness –of the worst kind- and you suffered more than any other because of it."

"You…you're an Angel…You're one of _them_. You completely fucked me up! What do you think happened to my insides when you…whatever you did to me! And then you were going to kill everyone! We know what happens during the Impact!"

"Yes. Everything you said is correct."

"_Wow_." Misato said in disgust. "Slow clap for miss apologetic here! What a great job you're doing Rei! I'd almost think you still don't put any value on your own life-"

"I don't!" Rei's cold glare answered as much as her broken voice did. "I don't deserve to-"

"Why? Because our Bastard dead Commander bred you to hate yourself and everything else too? Or has your life of physical and emotional abuse really led you to believe you don't deserve a second chance? Newsflash Rei, I didn't deserve one. Neither does Ritsuko. The people who _earned_ a second chance at life; Shinji, Maya, Touji, they'd better not waste it either! Right, Maya?"

"Ho-how was Rei abused? Did Gendo-" The thought disgusted Maya. Sure, she feared the girl with Lillith's spitting image, but she hated Gendo more.

"No…at least nothing Ritsuko was able to uncover as Rei's medical professional. He used Rei, and her 'relatives' as test subjects regarding the Evas and the theoretical effects of an Impact. But for simplicity, let's just call him an abusive parent."

"A tragic upbringing does not excuse my behavior-"

"No, but it _does_ get you a ticket into the self-pity club, Rei. You, Me, Maya, Ritsuko, Kaji, Asuka, your boyfriend, we're all lifetime members. We've all been responsible for digging around in the shit pile at some point in our lives, so _none of us_-" She glared at Maya, "have any right to hate each other any more or less than we hate ourselves."

"Was…Was it really that bad?"

"…Yes. I was used for more than Lillith. Please don't have sympathy on me-"

"…I do. I don't hate you, Rei. I like you, I always thought you were a really nice girl who only had too much military bearing put into her, with all that standing silent at attention and whatnot…If I don't need to forgive Misato, Ritsuko, my two idiot guy friends," Shigeru and Makoto turned their noses up at that comment, "or anybody else, then I don't need to forgive you, Rei…My breakdown was several months ago, and if I'm stable enough to carry on a conversation in a house bursting from the seams with people, then I…I can handle being friends with you."

The room, all focused on the soap-opera scene folding out in front of them, cheered. Ritsuko was overjoyed. "Maya, that was spectacular."

The young technician blushed where she sat. "I…I _was_ treated by the best…"

"Well now, a reunion is in order!"

"Misato, can we skip the ceremony and just go to the food?" Maya asked. "I'm hungry."

Everybody –sans one teenage girl still resolving her own sadness- exploded in laughter.

* * *

"Alright, how…the hell… are we going to do this-"

"You freaks all figure it out on your own. I'm staying with Hikari." Asuka snapped her cell phone shut and stood up from amidst the crowd to leave. "You all enjoy living in this madhouse tonight, I'm going where there's some peace and quiet." * SLAM *

"Annnnnnd she's gone."

"Actually, I think Asuka's bitchiness just helped us out. Shinji, Rei, you two get Shinji's room-"

"Ooohh!" Mari shouted. "Sounds like Misato's gettin weird!"

"Mari, please shut the fuck up. You and Kaworu get Asuka and Rei's room."

"Sticking us together, huh?"

"Don't make me change my mind…The boys sleep on the couches. That includes you, Kaji."

"But Misato-"

"Shut. It. Ritsuko and Maya stay with me."

"What about Asuka?"

"She can go to Hikari's apartment if she wants…We'll have one of the goons extract her and bring her to the GeoFront when it's ready."

"Waitaminute…When does Beth get here?"

"She's on her way back to France at the moment. There's a reason for that, and I'll tell you when the preparations are ready."

"Speaking of 'ready'…"

"All that has to happen is the glass needs to have a hole drilled over one of the Eva launch shafts. What we're going to do is lower Shinji and a skeleton command crew down the hole to get him inside Unit-01."

"That'll work?"

"The backup generators can power the lower levels long enough to launch an Eva, and Unit-01 is self-sustaining, anyway. It doesn't need a charge anymore. All we have to do is wait for the Army's drill to get through.

Maya, are you okay just hanging around the house tomorrow? We can't actually allow you to make this trip to the bridge."

"Y-yes ma'am."

"Seriously, it's 'Misato' while you're here. Goodnight everybody!"

* * *

The thick layer of dirty natural glass now making up a large portion of the GeoFront's surface reflected the artificial lighting unevenly, the GeoFront's ceiling shone with mottled streaks and strange shapes from the light. A Japan Land Defense Force battalion of Engineers and a large number of contracted civilian miners and oilers kept a constant convoy driving up and down the vehicle roadways inside the GeoFront shell, moving drilling platforms, cranes, dump trucks and excavators over the obsidian surface. Surveying teams had been moved in beforehand to identify the likely locations of the most direct Eva launch tubes.

This morning, the occupants of the Katsuragi apartment –plus one teenage girl that the few currently active Section 2 security were able to remove from the large population at the Horaki household- had driven down in the lead of a convoy, riding in a command bus.

"Surveying efforts have pinged several shafts; we're drilling pilot holes for the ones most likely to serve our goals with the least expenditure. Matsushiro's base commander doesn't want this to go down as anything as expensive as the equipment losses the last time anybody visited the GeoFront." Colonel Aida stated as he and the Professor discussed the losses at the old HQ.

"That was your peoples' fault, you know."

"Yes, Fuyutsuki, I know. But we're not going all in, here. Hopefully we'll be able to get it right with as little exploratory drilling as possible."

They looked on the excavation site as they arrived. The drills were placed at points around the pyramid's ruins, engineers and oilers climbing about them as they dug, the industrial noise echoing against the ceiling was deafening.

"What we'll do is construct a mining elevator to the subterranean command centers and ensure the shaft is opened wide enough for Unit-01 to climb out. After the pilot holes are drilled, we'll confirm the correct path, and then coordinate the cutting around the proper shaft. It'll work like a router box or rotary saw; we drill a narrow hole then grind out the walls around it in a spiral."

They drove to the singlewide trailer housing the foreman's offices. This was the only place with any chairs, other than the operator cab on an excavator.

"I don't have a concrete number." The foreman reported. "The pilot drilling ought to be done by this afternoon, but depending on the density of the material, we could be grinding away at the surface for days!"

"NERV is a patient organization, but the attackers are getting harder and harder to pursue as we wait."

"It'll speed up when we centralize on the one shaft we need."

* * *

Misato's guests all stood behind construction fences, staring at the mining equipment trying to crack the layer of melted earth left behind by the explosion.

"So, do we just stand around until they get us in?"

"For Shinji and Rei, yes. You, Kaworu and Mari will be going to Branch 3."

"Why am I taking those two? If I need to be in Berlin-"

"Because those two have more experience with SEELE than you do."

"Correct," Kaworu answered Misato and Asuka, "I learned SEELE's methods at Tabtha. I understand their politics, all we need is a destination."

"We're working on that, but he should still be somewhere in Germany at the moment."

"And what do you suggest we do once we get there?"

"Frankly, just vaporize the building he's in."

"…Works for me."

Misato nodded. "Mari, are you up for a flight from Japan to Germany?"

"I can't refuel in midair, but I can plot a low-risk flight plan. I can stop at the remains of Bethany in Russia; going over the Arctic Circle should be easier than trying to fly around the world."

"Good, you'll get authorization to pick up one of the birds at Matsushiro, there's no point in you three standing around when we need you in Berlin right now."

"Misato, what about us?" Shinji asked with Rei at his side, their eyes glowing underneath their sunglasses.

"We activate Unit-01, and we have Shinji climb out through the shaft, then we load you onto a flying wing and we drop you above Area 51."

"Do we actually know where Area 51 is? I mean, isn't that like a secret even to the Americans?"

"They only want you to think it's a secret. Hell, the air base there is registered as Homey Airport, callsign KXTA. You can look it up on the Internet if you want to. We don't even need to navigate there, we just point towards the Lat/Longs and drop you."

"And what do we do when we get there?"

"Find Page and raise Hell. I suggest crushing him between Unit-01's fingers."

* * *

48 Hours Later, Berlin.

Three young people disembarked from the NERV-Japan VTOL that put down on Branch-3's HQ helipads. NERV's branches were near-carbon copies of the original facilities in Japan, the Pyramid HQ on their German military property was quickly constructed after Lorenz secured the UN funding for Branch 3 and the construction of Unit-02, which was now living at home base, again. Things were not all going well, however.

"Oh shut up! If you need to go so badly, why didn't you ask when we were in Helsinki? God, I feel like somebody's mother!"

Kaworu had been silent the duration of the trip, preferring to sit back and rest while Mari and Asuka went at each other's throats, during the flight, at fuel stops, now that they were at their destination…The two equally hotheaded women should (not) be left in the same confined space alone, or else Kaworu knew he'd be reporting a medical emergency.

"Because, Glasses, you're the one responsible here! Just sign us in while I go." Asuka ran off, swiping her card at the secure entrance, still trying to hold it. Mari rubbed her temples and looked over at Kaworu.

"Welcome to Germany. Fortunately, quite a number of NERV staff over here speak Japanese, so don't worry about communicating. We have to put up with Princess until we pinpoint Lorenz's location." They collected their property and stopped to look up at the polished metal pyramid. "At least NERV is consistent, I guess. I wonder if it's the same on the inside, too."

They learned that Asuka would go directly to the German Eva bays. Fortunately, the layout was a photocopy of the Japanese facility, and they navigated it from memory instead of trying to read the German text on the walls. Branch 3 personnel hurried past them down into the facility. The Branch was in a rush to see their only Eva Pilot return to service, and an activation for Unit-02 was underway.

"The control seat is cramped when we try to work with two people inside. I'm not looking forward to operating with three." Kaworu mused.

"You're right. I'd much rather ride on Unit-02's helmet than listen to the Princess bitch about whatever."

"And you can be sure that she will-" Kaworu was cut off.

"Nice to see you all here and ready." The blonde French woman was the last thing Mari would've expected to see here.

"Beth!?"

"Misato granted me access to Branch 3. I just happened to learn something you three would probably find helpful."

"Where is he?" Mari, in the mood for some bloodletting, knew exactly who she was talking about.

"Trier."

"What? This is Berlin! Trier is all the way across the country!"

"And we've already made Branch 3 aware; they've got a good solution…not particularly original, but at least we know the death of your Unit-05 isn't completely in vain."

"Huh? What're you talking about?"

"How did they get power deep underground to an Eva without a living Core?"

"Unit-05 rode the electric rail catenary inside Bethany's cave system…As far as I know, the system still works. Unit-05 and the Angel exploded above ground."

"Germany happens to have an ultramodern transnational railway, doesn't it?"

"Wait…There's no way that would work- "

"While your posteriors were getting an education in China, Unit-02 was refit with a new 'long distance' power system. The engineers managed to increase the power density in the battery pack an Eva wears, giving Asuka around 20 minutes to fight, as opposed to just 10 to 11, but –more importantly- she uses a pantograph like Unit-05 had to skim power from the rail lines…At the speed an Eva can run at, she starts sprinting from here and arrives in Trier in a little over an hour. Once there, she has 20 minutes –providing she doesn't cause another battery to explode- to stomp Keel into a little red stain."

"I've gotta ask, Beth, how are you so well briefed on Unit-05?"

"His comatose Lordship oversaw its activation, didn't he?"

"Well…I guess…I thought sharing stuff like that violated SEELE's policy of anonymity."

"Yes it does, but how were we to make the puppets dance without knowing how and where to pull the strings?"

Mari stood for a moment, her face flat. "…I find your flippancy disturbing."

"Why, because you know that we once had NERV on a leash and eating from our hand?"

"Yeah, that's a big piece of it."

"Get used to it. NERV is what kept SEELE from succeeding last time, and now it's the Illuminati."

"Seems to me that NERV's been doing all the work."

"Exactly. That's how we operate, the Illuminati is behind the scenes, directing a transaction here, making sure the right organization assassinated the right despot there, just everything necessary to maintain the status quo, at least until humanity is actually ready to ascend to a new existence…"

"And who decides if that 'new existence' is good or not?"

"Oh it will be _objectively_ good. No more war, poverty, plague, class…we just can't give it to the people yet. Actually, Instrumentality really is the ultimate Communist utopia –from a certain point of view. No individual would have any needs, wants, or weaknesses, and all strengths would be shared amongst the whole…we'd just have to be disembodied souls swimming around an orange ocean of blood and dissolved organic tissue, trapped in a chaotic mess of shared thought. Think of all the depraved content in the Internet at the moment, and then think if it invaded your head _constantly_, because you'd be hearing and seeing every unwanted thought from every other soul alive in that soup."

"So then the status quo is _much_ more desirable."

"For people like Lorenz, no. That's the problem."

"Speaking of problem, Page is marked for death, sure. You're on our side…I think…Lucius DeBeers is as good as dead, but Zhao isn't."

"Yes, that could've gone better. But, her company will be in such disarray after a terrorist attack that made it all the way up to the penthouse that she's probably swept up in an administrative and security nightmare right now, to say nothing of the credibility loss the Hengsha Pangu project will suffer-"

"Hey Four Eyes, bring the freak to the sync control room, you two get to watch!" Beth was cut off when Asuka's voice erupted over the intercom.

"I see she's right at home at the controls of her robot, isn't she?"

"Yep, and we'll never stop hearing about it."

The test control room showed the guests the new equipment attached to Unit-02 in all its glory…One individual wasn't impressed. "This stuff is hideous! There's antennas and wires all over me, and this battery pack sucks! Unit-02 used to be elegant!"

"It also couldn't operate for more than 5 minutes." Mari and Kaworu didn't understand the German exchange between the girl and the technician at the control terminal, but they assumed it was some sarcastic comment Asuka made, because Beth burst out laughing.

"This isn't any more efficient!"

"No, but it works. The Russians proved it, for however long _that_ lasted."

"Oh boy, so now we're using Soviet-era solutions!"

"…No. This was implemented last year when Unit-05 was activated at Bethany."

"Oh yeah…We stopped for gas there…the place is still wrecked. Good job, Glasses!"

"Who is 'Glasses?' Loadout crew, install the passenger crate above the battery interface."

Ground crews maneuvered a crane with a large cartridge suspended below it. It was settled atop the battery pack, between Unit-02's shoulders. Crewmen operated large drills, bolting the compartment onto Unit-02's armor, ensuring that it was as secure as Unit-02's enormous, signature shoulder pauldrons.

"And that is where you two get on." Beth indicated to the two Eva-less Children.

"Is that thing safe?" Mari asked. She took one look at the unwieldy box attached to Unit-02, and then ralized that it's what she'd be riding on.

"Probably not. If it comes off, you'll be crushed in the impact with the ground. If Asuka falls flat on her back, you'll be crushed under the weight of Unit-02."

"Oh. Well, I probably should've died some other way by now. Why the hell not? Kaworu, let's load up."

The two brought their weapons along, and Eva crews helped them into the aircraft-style harnesses that would keep them riding along atop Unit-02.

Sirens sounded throughout the headquarters, a computer voice announced the activation.

'_Unit-02 Activation! Unit-02 Activation! Activate external power. Facilitate A-10 Neural Network. Remove restraining clamps.'_

Unit-02's passengers were crushed down in their seats as they rode the rocket-speed launch up from the subterranean bunker, to halt at a launch shaft just outside the pyramid.

"Hey, Kaworu, I can see our plane from here!" Mari shouted as she looked out the compartment's windows.

"Asuka, connect the pantograph to the nearby high-speed rail powerlines. Skim the lines as you run, you'll have power and the batteries will continue charging."

"Right. Where am I going?"

"Southwest following the rails. We'll send you directions to Trier's downtown. I'll be contacting you again when you arrive."

"Alright, as you wish!" She connected the unwieldy scaffolding to the live wires on the train lines and began running.

* * *

Meanwhile in Tokyo-3…

The drills had pierced the primary launch tube and were now focused on smoothing out the hole at the edges of the shaft. Unit-01 would manually climb to the top, and then walk to Matsushiro to attach to one of the Damiler-Benz flying wings. The massive aircraft, big enough to loft an Evangelion to altitude, were German engineering at their finest.

The NERV primary staff returned for the latest day of drilling.

"They're working on installing the temporary elevators right now. You two have your prescriptions?"

"We're both at 100%, regarding our bioelectric surplus, Colonel Katsuragi."

"Alright. There's going to be no telling what you'll encounter when you drop into Area 51-"

"Probably men with guns, Misato."

"Gallows humor, Shinji? From _you_?"

"It's because if I didn't laugh I'd burst out crying."

"You both know, none of this is your fault. If you don't want to do this, we can try salvaging a dummy-"

"We're ending what my Bastard father started, Misato. Fuck the dummy plugs, fuck SEELE, fuck Page! Nobody is ever hurting Rei again."

"What about you, is anybody ever hurting you again, Shinji?"

"No, Colonel Katsuragi, _I_ won't allow Shinji to be harmed again." The pair stood side by side.

"That's…actually really cute, in a creepy, deranged sort of way."

The elevator was tested, then opened. The NERV staff loaded in, then rode down to the nearly pitch-black, quite hot interior of NERV HQ's Eva Storage bunker. With flashlights guiding them to their destinations, Eva crews worked their way to the launch bays while the bridge staff took their places at their terminals. Misato, Kaji, the Professor, and Ritsuko stood on the upper level, waiting for the television displays to turn on.

"The ground crews are taking their sweet time." Shigeru said from the darkness of his blacked-out workstation.

"You want to fix it?"

"No Makoto, I can't. I'm not a nerd like you."

"The next time your satellite goes out, don't come calling me, then."

* * *

Shinji was halfway through getting into his plugsuit in the dark locker room when a ghostly-silent presence stepped behind him. He pulled the open shoulders of the large, deflated suit up, only to scream and jump, tripping and tumbling out of it when two gloved hands rubbed his shoulders.

"Not only am I faster than you in the locker room, you're still as high-strung as a cat."

"Rei, there's a girl's locker room, what are you doing here?!" Shinj covered himself as best he could, backing up against the lockers to see his better half smirking at him.

"Considering we have each others' virginity, I should be the last person you feel awkward in front of."

"NO, THAT ONLY MAKES IT WORSE!"

"It's disappointing the plugsuit is such an attractive outfit, it covers up those enhanced muscles you've been given." Rei flexed one of her hips out, and Shinji definitely noticed.

"Re-r-Rei, are you going to let me get dressed?"

"It would be more entertaining to watch you cower and squirm."

"What's gotten into you!?"

"Well, you did, but that was a while ago. Now, I think it's humorous to watch you panic in front of your girlfriend." She lifted him up by the hand, him still trying to hide. She brought his plugsuit over to him to help him get dressed. "Soryu did have a point several months ago. Though not weak, you were 'scrawny', but the nanotech injections solved that problem thoroughly."

"Uhh-uhh…" = Please don't notice! =

She compressed his suit around him. "We really should simply spend more leisure time together, Shinji. Paris was good to us, wasn't it?"

"Uhh…yeah." = This is so uncomfortable! =

"Clearly things aren't normal enough for us yet."

"Well…I don't want things to get to the point where we leave the door open when we go to the bathroom…"

"Rather unattractive, the thought."

"Exactly…can we go now?"

"This locker room going to be awkward for you from now on, Shinji?"

"Yes!"

"Objective complete, then." She laced her fingers through his, the rubberized material of the plugsuits caused them to squeak and pop as they held hands.

"You're not going to talk about this, are you?"

"To embarrass you further? I might."

"Why, Rei, what have I done?"

"You've grown in every area except this one."

"What do you mean? What area?"

"I'm proud to be in a relationship with you, you act the opposite."

"Of course I'm proud! I love you…I just want it to be private."

"I know that I'm considered very attractive by our classmates, Shinji. You happen to think so as well, but you don't act like you want to 'show me off' like others would."

"That's because…Sure I think you're pretty, but I started liking you because you were so smart and brave, I didn't care about your looks.

No! Wait…I-I did, I just didn't want to be shallow and stupid, and it's more important that I care about how kind and caring you were…uhh- still are, but you look good too, and, uhh-"

"Shinji."

"R-Rei?"

"Stop babbling like the idiot Asuka accuses you of being. I love you."

"Oh." They arrived at the loading bays. = Hey…My turn. =

He walked up to Unit-01's restraining bridge, leading Rei in with him. He climbed up the entry ladder, Rei following him.

They installed the weapons they'd be taking into waterproof storage and jumped into the liquid LCL in the plug. Shinji sat down first. He made a flirty grin as he motioned for her to sit in his lap. When she nestled herself down atop him at the plug's controls, he snaked his arms around her waist, pulled her up to his chest, and rested his head on her shoulder. He placed her hands upon the twin joysticks and then moved back to hold her, whispering three powerful words in her ear.

"You pilot it."

* * *

A/N: This took me a nightmarish amount of time to write, for the relatively dry content you're getting. Writers block and a barrage of school work took its toll. Next chapter should come out _slightly_ faster...


	16. The Black Gate

Chapter 16: The Black Gate

* * *

"You'd better; run all day And run all night! Keep your dirty feelings Deep inside! And if you're taking your girlfriend Out tonight, you'd better park the car well out of sight! Cause if they catch you in the back seat trying to Pick her locks-"

"Mari, is singing Pink Floyd out loud really appropriate right now?"

"Kaworu, I ought to slug you just for asking that! Pink Floyd is ALWAYS appropriate! And Asuka _is_ Running like Hell right below our feet!"

And run she did. Unit-02's situational awareness computer reported Asuka's current speed to her, running at 800 kilometers per hour, tearing up the land under her feet; she'd already passed through Weimar and was headed to Frankfurt, following one of Germany's transnational electric railways. Whenever she would approach one of the trains running down the track, she'd detach the pantograph and leap up over the train into a weightless forward flip, landing over it to connect back to the power supply and resume her stride.

"I wonder how much power she's wasting with all that flamboyance!" Kaworu shouted to Mari as the world rolled around them as Unit-02 somersaulted over another train.

"It helps us keep our speed!"

"What do you think the News stations think about seeing an Eva Unit deployed on land in Europe?"

"Nothing good, I'll bet."

* * *

The chessboard's population is thinning. Pawns have been eliminated, both players have been placed in check by their opponent more than once, and the endgame has placed both Kings and Queens at risk…

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "Our growth environments were damaged when the Children attacked the Research Laboratory. Our capacity to generate an artificial S2 Organ has been halted for the time being."

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "How many units are needed?"

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "Only the Enlightened shall receive the gift of life…The perfect union of biology and electronic engineering…With the S2's immortality, we will have all the time we need to propagate the augmentation technology. An entire race of human beings, uploaded into a network with the bandwidth capacity to make 40 Gigabit Ethernet seem like Morse Code, and we will be the Administrators.

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "And what of the Chairman?"

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "His views are outdated. Endless talk about Angels and Scrolls found in clay pots; of which none of the prophecy was true…The progenitor's children, returning to unite with the creator of life, defeated by the very weakest humanity had to offer. Lorenz expected to use both Ikaris as his tool, and he was played for a fool by both of them.

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "You say that, but his predictions regarding S2 Theory have been correct. He is close to God, now."

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "He is the prototype for a larger system. Do you think I would allow you or me to have alien flesh grafted into our bodies without a prototype?"

SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "That can't happen now, anyway. What will he think when he hears your opinion about him?"

SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "If he survives the test of godhood, then I will gladly submit to his power…I doubt it will happen."

* * *

Trier, Germany may very well be the oldest city in the ancient Germanic territories, founded by the expanding Roman Empire in AD 16. In ancient times, it was a near-impenetrable stronghold for the Roman Army, and a center of law, culture, and arms. Modern Trier's purpose has changed little, and its Roman heritage is visible in the city's Deco architecture. The historic city was the birthplace of the Marxist ideology, it is home to the regulating body for the practice of law for the entire European Continent, and the Panzerwerks Arms facility supplies weaponry to military forces throughout the European Union and employs a large portion of the population of 100,000.

Today, the peaceful, quiet city felt tremors on the ground as a beast, 80 meters tall, rose from the horizon, running faster than sound as it approached the city. As they were out and about for the day, the citizens saw it coming a kilometer away.

"That's an Eva Robot! I've only seen them in the news!"

"Why would the UN allow one to operate out here!?"

"IT'S RUNNING TOWARDS THE CITY-"

All sound was drowned away as supersonic robot tore down the railway towards the city. The pilot halted the red demon just before the railway ended at the city station. The terrified passengers and conductors at the station –who were certain that there was no Evangelion due for arrival- fled the station as Asuka brought Unit-02 to a stop.

"Alright! We know Lorenz had that S2 Core shoved in his chest! We have to let the MAGI system at Branch 3 scan for an AT Field in the city!" Asuka shouted over the radio to her passengers.

"How much time do you have?" Kaworu radioed back.

"I figure less than 20 minutes after I disconnect…Beth! Any intel? We're waiting?"

The Frenchwoman in Berlin answered them. "The MAGI are still searching…Asuka, face Unit-02 towards Trier's downtown…"

"Alright..." Unit-02's eyes fed their vision to Branch 3, and the MAGI returned an area with an orange glow centered around-

"Beth, where is that?"

"The Porta Nigra, The Black Gate. A Roman construct, now a German Historic Site… You don't get to allow Unit-02 to simply knock the building down; NERV would never survive the political fiasco…Asuka, approach with caution and allow Mari and Kaworu to enter at ground level, then provide overwatch for them with Unit-02's spectral vision."

"…Okay, you're making this sound too easy. From what we know, Keel has an AT Field, so-"

"Unit-02 should handle it."

Asuka shed the power conduit at the station, and a 20-minute timer began counting down. She tiptoed through the streets of Trier, avoiding cars and pedestrians as they fled the giant. The Black Gate, the ruins of the ancient Roman city, were open to the public as a museum, but _most_ of the patrons fled at the red Unit approached. One individual, an old man wearing a long, green coat, smiled at the good fortune.

= My power led you right to my doorstep. Oh, child, your innocence is what cost you your mother once, it must now happen again. =

From one concealed fold of his coat, he drew a longbow, nearly his equal in height. From the opposite fold, he extracted one single arrow, its tip pulsing with an orange sphere.

"It really is interesting, how the gift of eternal life is also the ultimate weapon." He stood at his position on the turret of the ruined castle, knocked the arrow, drew it back, and released it towards the red devil's chest.

It happened in an instant. The MAGI at Branch 3 went haywire. Asuka screamed and Unit-02 fell backwards, the passenger station on its shoulders broke loose and tumbled across the empty street to crash into the corner shops across the road, destroying them.

Beth shouted out in pain as the headset she wore filled her ears with cacophonic interference; she ripped them off and threw them to her side.

"What just happened?! STATUS REPORT!" Came the order from Branch 3's bridge.

"Unit-02 was attacked with…a weapon…"

"Is that really the best you can do!?"

"We don't know what hit it! It was just, well, something!"

* * *

* GROAN * "…Kaworu?" The brunette slithered out of her harness and collapsed to the floor of the wrecked compartment. "Are you okay?"

The boy was slumped in his seat, breathing weakly. One of his arms hung limply "Mari…I estimate that I've received three cracked ribs, a laceration at my forehead, and a dislocated shoulder- AAAAGH!"

"_Re_located shoulder." The unhinged girl took her hands off his arm.

He panted heavily from the meatball treatment. "…Fuck you…uurgh…"

"Uhh, _yeah_! That's what I've been _trying_ to do for the last several months, but you won't put out!"

The injured boy laughed through his pain. Despite knowing Mari quite well, that was (not) the reaction to his insult that he expected. "Go…go check on Soryu-"

"You know there's no need. The plug would've kept her safe…how does it feel?"

"I've been through worse…This harness will keep me from any further injury, Mari…End This."

"Oh. Hell. Yes." She pried open the weapon cabinet, extracted her rifle, and inserted one magazine. "Kaworu, are you sure-"

"Go. I'm only injured."

Mari nodded and clambered over the crushed mannequins and demolished store shelves in the boutique the passenger container destroyed. = Some of those camis and leggings look pretty good! Maybe I'll loot the place after I kill fossil man. =

Ignoring the nearby police sirens, Mari crossed the street to the ancient fortress, chambered her first round, and entered the double doors at ground level. The sunny, open-air courtyard was surrounded by columns and buttresses making up the four floors of the ancient structure. Plaques and markers lined the walls, giving an account of the Roman dominion over the Germanic territories. She brought her weapon up and began looking around the ground floor for signs of life. = No tourists, good. No unnecessary casualties...Damn, Puppy and Watergirl's bionic eyes would be really helpful right now- =

"Roman architecture, lovely lady. Do you believe any modern facility would stand a thousand years? Your NERV certainly didn't." A deep, cold voice bellowed out.

"Yeah, well I'll bet this place couldn't hold up to two nuclear blasts, either!" She whipped around, aiming high up into the upper floors. "I've been feeling lonely, got an arrow with MY name on it?"

"Does it matter? You're pointing that silly thing at me; I've completed my journey-"

"Fuck your 'journey'. Even if you've already won the race, I'll shoot you after you've crossed the finish line!"

"As I was about to say, shooting me would do little."

"Oh, right. S2 Core and all that. How's it feel to know that we wrecked Zhao's shit, old man?"

"You ransacked her home, but you did nothing to harm _her_."

"Point taken, I'll go back to China and finish the job."

"NERV's Evangelion is collapsed into a heap behind you, I have the heart of a god. You? You're a little orphan girl in no way qualified to carry that weapon of yours. Much like your reluctant partner, you wouldn't exist without SEELE. It was DeBeer's influence that got you into the IPEA, and you had a sad way of thanking him."

= If you're so tough, why are you hiding in the shadows, old man!? = Mari thought as she made it up to a spiral staircase and began her ascent. The mezzanine on the second level was empty. "Great job reiterating everything I already know! I wouldnt've bombed ol' Louie if he didn't have it coming! Maybe if you freaks hadn't decided to play God, you wouldn't be getting your ass kicked!"

"We're getting our asses kicked, you say? Interesting that all I need to do is stand here, yet you obey your masters and come to me. How like a dog."

"HEY! Shinji's the only one with the dog nickname! I'm doing this because I'm sick of putting up with you shitheads!" Mari swept the third floor for life, seeing nothing but more stone and brick. She returned to the staircase and climbed up to the fourth floor.

She entered the mezzanine around the open-air courtyard. "Whew! Now that's a long way down!"

"For a mortal like you, the trip would last a lifetime." He stepped back from the castle turret and turned to her. He was the old man from the video, still wearing that visor and wearing that long green coat. "Now that you see me, what do you think? This is the future you'll inherit if you succeed."

= My back is to the ledge. Perfect. = "Explain."

"Without a ruling class with the vision to decide the future of humanity, you will fall headfirst into centuries of war. Nothing in the earth would be green, nothing would survive on its surface-"

"And Instrumentality would remove everything green from the surface in minutes. We'd survive as threads of consciousness swimming around in orange slime."

"Humanity's intelligence would grow, exponentially, as the barriers between minds fall-"

"And there would be no utility to that intelligence, whatsoever. We'd be an ineffectual god. Sitting omniscient on our throne of LCL, never putting our intelligence to work, never doing a damn thing because we can't! All we'd be able to do is float and squirm around in that soup!"

"No, that is what would happen if Instrumentality were to be halted at its midpoint, as Ikari's child did. _Complete _Instrumentality would result in the birth of new bodies, shared by the singular Soul of Humanity, as powerful as ADAM himself."

"Yeah, no. If that were true, ADAM would return –for real- and kick your ass. The reason you beat Kaworu in China is because he willingly took on a weak human form, AT Field notwithstanding, because he'd rather live as one of a billion Lillin rather than a singular god. That singular god was willing to die to stop Instrumentality; Hell, he led the operation against it! Take humanity away from him, and there's nothing he couldn't –or wouldn't- do to you."

"He no longer has divinity to protect him. You, he, and the Second Child will fall to my hand-"

Mari's eye twitched. = Nobody. Threatens. My. Friends. = "Fall? Okay!"

Mari leaped forward, grabbed Lorenz by the arms, and dragged him off the ledge. She twisted around to bring his back to face the ground as they fell four stories to the surface, the artificial god striking the ground at 58 kilometers per hour. Mari groaned through the pain of the landing and rolled off the stunned man onto the ground. = That hurt...I need an AT Field...Hey! I've got like two seconds to see if this works! = She ran out of the ancient structure to Unit-02's paralytic corpse.

The arrow that overpowered Unit-02's outdated Core protruded from it's armor, appearing as a toothpick sticking out of the chest of the gargantuan being. She clambered up a leg to run across the bright red armor to the weapon's resting place. She grasped, and pulled with all her well-toned and athletic strength. Mucus-like webs of developing flesh snapped away from where the arrow was bonding with the body of Unit-02. Mari pulled, fighting with all her might to rip and tear the unholy weapon from its victim.

The arrow came free. A scream was heard from inside Unit-02.

* * *

"Ma...Mama...It hurts..." Her sync hadn't broken from Unit-02. She felt the living S2 Core on the arrow overshadow the imperfect, synthetic Core still in Unit-02's chest.

Deep inside Unit-02's entry plug, the pilot and the spirit shared their pain.

"Yes...Asuka. I feel it too." Her mother's soul spoke out. "Fight it...you can bring us back to life..."

"What...are these things?" She groaned out, the influence of the Core felt like a hot metal weight was being pressed into her chest.

"The Core? It's...made from protein much like your own body...yet, it supplies itself with what it needs to survive...We'd known that since we discovered...ADAM, yet we hadn't made a living Core until after Unit-02 was ready...The pain is great..."

"NERV can heal Unit-02, Mama! Don't let it weaken you!"

"The key to immortality...the separation between God and Man..."

"Mama, what are you talking about!?"

"Find yourself, Asuka. Find...peace and...the influence will not harm you..."

"What about you!?"

"I'll resist it." The pain, the weight...it bore down on Asuka and her mother in equal measure.

"Mama, do you feel...tired?" Asuka yawned from her seat at the controls. The stress made her crave rest, crave sleep.

"Don't you close your eyes, Asuka." If Kyoko lost her daughter, she'd have no reason to continue resisting, herself.

"But...the weight...the pain...I need...rest."

"No, Asuka, Don't-...AAAAAAAAA-"

Her mother's voice screamed, then –in an instant- ceased. Asuka shot awake as she felt the burning, stabbing sensation lift from her senses.

"MAMA!? WHAT HAPPENED!? MAMA!? NO! NO! No...no...please, not...a-again..."

Asuka looked around the pitch-black entry plug. "Not...again..." She brought her knees up to her chest, wrapped her around herself, and cried.

* * *

Lorenz stood. The fall was certainly painful, but what would kill a man did nothing to the artificial god. A teenage girl ran towards him, her footing uncertain as she forced herself through the pain in her muscles and bones to run at him, the arrow she carried pulsing with energy as she charged.

The two forces collided. Two orange hexagons appeared and collided against each other. Mari planted her sore feet and legs and pushed with all her strength as Lorenz continued to stand.

"You don't have the strength to breach _my_ soul, orphan!"

Mari cringed and growled as she pushed. = Mari might not, but the Beast certainly can! = "I...In-vert...controls...Help me, Unit-02, give me your strength! Backdoor Code...I-I love you, Kaworu, I don't want you to have to fight...again...THE BEAST! THERE IT IS!"

The influence of the feral Unit was still within her. Her eyes burned with green light, her glasses shattered in space, before her. Her muscles pulsed with new, inhuman strength.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW, OLD MAN!"

Lorenz's AT Field shattered. Mari thrust the arrow into his chest, the two Cores reacting to each other's presence. Lorenz bellowed out a hellish shout as his body burned from the reaction. Mari leapt away from the man consumed by alien fire. She...less ran, and more _tumbled_ across the street to the corner shop where Kaworu was. She made it to the crew capsule and collapsed.

"I...fought him, Kaworu...I fought...him...it hurt..."

Kaworu fumbled with his harness as he slithered out, gasping with pain as he felt his cracked ribs move against each other. He activated the Radio in his plugsuit, hoping somebody at Branch 3 would translate his Japanese. "Nagisa to...Branch 3." He groaned through his chest injuries. "...Target down...casualties...100%. We need support...as soon as possible."

* * *

A green coat, visor, and several prosthetic limbs and artificial organs were the remains of the man inside the black gate. Mari and Kaworu both received onsite medical care as the NERV recovery forces arrived on scene, using UN privilege to close off the area to everyone, including the Trier police and the German Military.

A crew opened Unit-02's back panel. They drilled the plug out and opened the emergency door to see Asuka crouched at the controls, sobbing to herself.

Mari, wrapped in bandages and limping, approached.

"Um, Asu-"

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO YOU FREAK!?"

"I killed the bastard! Don't start this crap today, Asuka!"

"YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!"

"...What!?"

"When you did whatever you did...Get away from me!"

"Asuka, you're my friend, I'm not leaving until we sort this out-"

"What's there to sort!? You beat the bad guy, you're the hero, and you lost nothing! Get away from me, Mari!"

Mari backed away from the entry plug. There'd be no talking to Asuka, no matter how hard she tried.

She returned to the wrecked boutique. "Hey, Kaworu?"

"Mari." He was still being examined by a medic.

"Did I do the right thing?"

"Fighting Lorenz alone?"

"Using that S2 Core arrow...how did it kill-"

"The more powerful core overshadows the weaker one. Your rage killed Lorenz, but the Core itself destroyed Unit-02...Apologize to Asuka at some point, Mari. But, you did nothing wrong."

"I didn't want to hurt Asuka! I don't want to be that angry again..." Mari dropped to her knees. "I'm sick of fighting. Sick of blowing people's heads off...I don't want to kill anybody else-"

She was cut off by Kaworu pulling her into his arms. "If SEELE falls, Mari, who are NERV's enemies? No one. We must survive this campaign, then we have peace."

"Kaworu...please don't let go of me."

* * *

Over the Pacific. 45,000 Feet.

The flying wing intercepted the public radio broadcast. The pilots of the giant aircraft heard the report.

_'This is Eliza Cassan. NERV forces in Germany were deployed to Trier today to investigate a suspected terrorist threat. Their investigation escalated into a confrontation between NERV's Evangelion Weapon, 'Unit-02', and an unknown attacker. The attacker was eliminated, but the Evangelion Unit was destroyed. Fortunately, the pilot and passengers were confirmed alive._

_Remember, for the latest news, always choose Live from Picus.'_

"Rei! Asuka, Kaworu and Mari!"

"Despite Picus' obvious news slant, Shinji, hopefully they _are_ safe. We won't know until after our objective is complete, but there's no reason to lose focus. If you're emotionally compromised-"

"I know, Rei. I just want them to be safe."

"Our victory will ensure their safety."

* * *

A/N: A costly victory for NERV, but the game is almost over...


	17. REDACTED

Answers: Nexus- Thanks for the multitude of reviews! I try to keep up with most of my reviewers via private message.  
Cobray: Same! I especially like Mari because she injects so much mindless fun into a (supposedly) dark and serious series like Eva.  
Starfire: I PM'ed you, hope I cleared any confusion up.

* * *

Chapter 17: REDACTED

* * *

"What in the world are these readings?" Makoto called out from his terminal, the three active computers providing the only light for the command bridge. All across NERV's once pristine headquarters, silence and darkness reigned. The deepest levels of the facility hummed with the sound of the powerplant operating in the state of emergency, but it can't provide enough power to allow combat operations to proceed in full. Only radio and vitals were being received at the underground complex, leaving the accountability for the sortie to the pilots themselves.

"We should've figured a better solution. Their sync levels are interfering again." Ritsuko took over the console. "Shinji, Rei, who's at the controls right now?"

The radio gave the answer from half a world away. "I am, Doctor Akagi. What can I do for you?"

"I should've known this would happen…Shinji's natural ability to synchronize with Unit-01 is interfering with Rei…Technically, Rei is still a foreign entity to Unit-01…Shinji, take the clips off."

"What!?" The radio answered. "If I do that, then I can't talk to-…you know…"

"And if Rei is unable to walk when you release, this will be a very short-lived sortie."

Makoto's computer reported the loss of a signal, but at least Shigeru still received the medical report from Shinji's plugsuit.

"Rei, you're in charge from now on. You're over southern California, so welcome back to the US. As soon as you release, you're considered hostile; that's just the cost of operating covertly."

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

Clandestine Facility, KXTA.

"Extract the synthetic."

A glass tube filled with an orange liquid was drained of its contents. The tube rose to the ceiling and a human body was assisted to its feet by nurses and research scientists present.

"Do you know your purpose?"

The individual looked at the questioner. "To protect you."

"Very good. Who am 'I'?"

"You are the Invisible Hand. You are the man who will be God."

"And why are you protecting me?"

"Because the foolish Children are coming."

The man nodded approvingly at his bodyguard. He was taken to a supply room where he received a suit and tie. He got dressed and was directed to the weapons research armory.

"The Children think they are the only individuals on the planet with active nanotechnology." The man offered a sword to his bodyguard, pressing a button on its hilt. The blade, originally cold steel, ignited with blue light. "The prototype 'Nanosword'. The blade is home to millions of electrical conduits that traverse the blade and cause it to burn blue-hot. It's kept razor sharp, and the heat, voltage, and edge allows it to cut through plate armor."

The bodyguard felt his new possession. "Then it will cut down our enemies as well."

* * *

"NERV HQ, confirm coordinates." Rei said from inside Unit-01. In Japan, the NERV command staff found their position on a computerized map of the world. They were above the small military town of Watertown, Nevada –a housing village for Area 51 personnel.

"Rei, Unit-01 has permission for breakaway. You have operational command starting…now."

Rei ordered Unit-01 to separate from the flying wing with her A-10 connection. The two passengers inside the Eva were shaken about the entry plug as telephone pole-sized restraining bolts withdrew from Unit-01's armor back into the flying wing. The giant, free from its bondage in the stratosphere, began to descend. Slowly, at first, but it began to fall into a dive as the very un-aerodynamic beast fell out of the flying-wing's wake.

It took only seconds for the dive to be interrupted by missile fire. Ordnance began exploding across Unit-01's body, creating enormous shockwaves across Unit-01's AT Field. "Headquarters, we are under attack. Repeat, we've come under fire-"

"We know, Rei! We expected as much, so where the hell is your escort!?" Misato changed the international radio channel. "U.N. SKY-EYE, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?"

"Cut the chatter. We're overhead, and the NERV vehicle has an escort inbound. All Mobius squadron aircraft, follow Mobius 01 through NERV's descent. You do not, repeat, -do not- have permission to fire on US Air Force aircraft. Begin dumping flares and transmitting countermeasures when you have visual on 'Unit-01'."

No response came from four F-22 Raptors, currently assigned to the United Nations, in their supersonic dive out from the sun. Sky Eye had long since become accustomed to the inhuman silence from Mobius 1 and his wingmen during their sorties, but it still frustrated Combined Force commanders around the world, who have yet to learn that attempting to communicate with Mobius 1 inside the cockpit is an exercise in futility.

A flight of F-16 Falcons from Area-51's air defense squadron came into range and fired another wave of long-range active radar missiles, which were thrown off-target by countermeasure drones launched from the Raptors' bomb bays. The miniature, rectangular unmanned aircraft present a larger radar reflection than the stealthy fighters and Unit-01, still in a steep dive towards the Nevada desert. The sky was lit aflame with the swarm of infrared flares filling the sky as Mobius Squadron continued to impede Area-51's cover. Each time another wave of missiles was fired by the Falcons, the drones would broadcast radar-confusing energy and the Raptors would dump more flares. Unit-01 continued its freefall, from 45,000 feet…to 35,000…25,000…

Rei lifted Unit-01 into a smoother glide and zoomed Unit-01's viewscreen into a ground view of Area-51's surface facilities to determine the entrance to the underground complex, previously in use by NERV Branch 2, and now under Page Industries' ownership.

She fell below 10,000 feet. Mobius Squadron and Sky Eye turned to evacuate the classified airspace. The Falcons were called off as ground forces were mobilized to attack Unit-01 at its landing site. The giant pitched to a standing position as rocket engines on its shoulders fired, slowing it to a halt just above the ground. Tank shells struck the AT Field, disrupting the delicate landing procedure and causing Unit-01 to trip and stumble to the ground. Rei quickly righted Unit-01 and brought it to its feet, for another series of shells to strike the field.

"Shinji, how much stress can Unit-01 endure?"

"Unit-01 is basically God, Rei. Do whatever you want."

Rei began to walk from the desert flat she landed on. Unit-01's loudspeakers played a message to the Army and Marines stationed at the secretive facility. "American Military Personnel, you are not under the jurisdiction of US Central Command. You are serving a defense contractor responsible for multiple international terror attacks and are violating American terror doctrine by acting under the command of a terrorist organization. Did any of you enlist to support attacks on civilians in Japan and Germany? Your superiors are performing targeted killings in sovereign nations, with no constraint from the Pentagon. We are under orders to prevent any further killings, and we hope to avoid any American losses. Break your attacks and divert, or we cannot guarantee your survival. Our opponents are senior Page Industries executives, not the United States. Please do not force us to change our directive, as it would have predictable results."

Tank shells again impacted Unit-01's AT Field, causing little reaction. Rei continued her walk towards the center of the facility. Anti-armor units were recalled as an experimental weapons battalion was deployed from within Area-51's bunker. Unit-01's sensors detected the new units on their battlefield, as enormous power sources were detected within heavy equipment vehicles now approaching. "Mobile generating units…Area 51 is about to deploy energy weapons against us." Rei said to the pilot she sat atop.

"Think, Rei…we've trained for this…if it's a cannon or railgun or something like that, then the AT Field will just block the shell. If it's a laser…well, light and plasma can get through the field, we already know that…"

The 10 Million Watts of ultraviolet light now shining through the AT field and burning Unit-01's body told them what was attacking them. Area 51 deployed a military tactical laser; a flashlight compared the Sixth Angel's stream of plasma, but the focused beam of light burned weapon and pilot in equal measure.

"Shinji-…Shinji, do y-you feel it…?" Rei gasped as she held her chest.

"Only a little! I let you have the higher sync! You have to work through it, or take your headset off and I'll take over the controls."

"No…Piloting the Eva is…sacrifice, it is pain, and…it's a price I won't refuse…to pay." She trudged through the burn and slowly made her way to the parking lot on the outskirts of the base proper where the weapon and power supply were set up to operate. She cried out as she knelt down to grab and pick up the transfer truck that carried the laser, the line of fire crossing right into Unit-01's face. The assault ended when Rei threw the laser platform across the base, exploding into a fireball when it crash landed on the opposite end of the base.

Rei felt her face; it was hot and stung to the touch. "Sunburns are to be expected, I suppose, seeing as how we're in Nevada in the summer, megawatt laser notwithstanding."

"Any damage to the Eva?"

"Not that I can sense…The S2 Core should be healing the superficial burns."

"Then find the bunker. This is the place with all the sci-fi stories and alien legends, so we're probably looking for some kind of nuclear bomb-safe building where they'd keep UFO's…What?" He noticed her glare at him.

Rei skeptically eyed his expression. "It's good that you're right, because that statement was completely outrageous."

* * *

Just below the ground's surface, behind a nuclear-resistant vault door but far above the CEO's secure facility, American NERV staff didn't believe their eyes. They watched security monitors record the primary Japanese Evangelion Unit as it landed directly atop their base. The scientists were shocked.

"That's Unit-01! What the hell is it doing here!?"

"Those security forces! It just wiped them all out! We're under attack!"

"What happened to Unit-04!? It's the only thing capable of fighting off another Eva, and it's not here-"

"Think about what you're all saying." One young researcher spoke up from the crowd. "You all should know _exactly_ what's going on:

We launch Unit-04 on a long-range 'test' deployment a couple weeks ago, and when it doesn't return on schedule, the new administrators tell us not to be concerned.

All of a sudden, the primary weapon of the organization that supposedly 'abandoned' us randomly decides to arrive and start assaulting the military presence!

2 and 2 don't equal 5, people! Page Industries launched Unit-04 to go to Tokyo-3 and attack NERV's primary headquarters, and when it failed and got destroyed, Japan decided launch Unit-01 as a counterattack! Listen to me; we have to get down to the lower levels."

"Page's security locked NERV personnel out of the low levels, Gary. How do you suggest we-"

"We need to cause several industrial accidents and cause the fire escapes to unlock. Everybody go to the labs, scrub up and get vapor masks on, and start spilling chemicals."

* * *

The battlefield was shrinking. Tank commanders had long realized that their shells couldn't touch the purple-green beast and called off their armor and retreated. The experimental weapons were taking irrecoverable damage; the heavy laser was destroyed, two truck-mounted artillery railguns had been stomped to bits after alerting Unit-01 to their presence, and the air defense wings stopped scrambling fighters as two F-16s were slapped down on the runway.

"We're not making good time, Shinji. Unit-01 can continue assaulting the surface defenses until the Sun collapses, but we need to get underground-"

An idea arose in deep recesses of Rei's mind. She walked Unit-01 to the outskirts of the military installation and knelt down beside a road gate and security guard shack. She grasped the building and tore it from the ground, lifting it up to Unit-01's eye level.

Unit-01's loudspeakers spoke to the building as Rei found several men inside, trying their hardest not to fall out of the open holes in the doorways and floors.

"Where is the secure entrance?"

The men screamed at the weapon's face.

"Once again, where is the secure entrance?"

"_Carved into the hillside! It's a nuclear-safe facility! The terrain provides natural protection!"_

"Thank you. I had hoped not to bring any of you to harm." She gently placed the building back on the ground. Unit-01 walked across the base, soldiers evacuating in Humvees and Mine-Resistant vehicles.

Rei unslung the standard 209 millimeter rifle from Unit-01's back and stood before the artificial mountainside at the base. Millions of cubic meters of earth had been built up into the natural protection for Area 51's subterranean complex, and the entryway was a single metal door large enough to pass transfer trucks through.

"Page happened to lock himself inside, but luckily, I have a key." Rei shot the blast door.

The Evangelion round impacted the door, and the two enormous pieces of metal were rended together.

Shinji watched through the viewscreen. "What."

"I suppose that I just made the door _more_ difficult to breach."

"Do we know any other way to get in?"

"No, we do not. Hypothesis: the vault door was designed to jam itself into place in the event of kinetic bombardment."

"And how do you test that, Rei?"

Unit-01 began savagely kicking the blast door. It became dented and irregular, but it endured. "Who would have thought that a facility built to survive World War Three would survive an attack that it might encounter in World War Three? Usually the United States Government builds military equipment wholly inadequate for the scenarios it gets deployed in."

* * *

"When was the last time we spoke?"

"What?" Rei answered.

Shinji looked at her. "Huh? I didn't say anything."

"Then-"

"Shinji's headset is still off…I doubt he can hear me. Are you alright, Rei?"

"We're stalled at the entrance to the facility, Dr. Ikari. It's locked up quite well."

Shinji interrupted. "Wait, my mom's awake!?"

"Put your clips back in."

Unit-01 ceased its attack and stood still as the new mind inside the plug diverted some of Rei's influence over it away from her. "Mom! I-"

"I warned you this wouldn't be easy, Shinji."

"What?"

"You wanted to attack SEELE, but they beat you down in China, and now you're fighting a wall."

"Yeah, but whether or not it's easy or wise or whatever, they have to be stopped!"

"Oh my, how you've grown, Shinji. Did you ever see yourself charging a situation to do what's right, in the face of those who would sit back and let injustice continue?"

"What are you talking about!?"

"I wish I could have been there, Shinji. Maybe I could have developed another way to control an Eva, found a way to let the pilot sync without having a familiar human spirit inside, then maybe you would have never needed to pilot in the first place."

"I'm okay with that now!"

"Yes, but there will always be sacrifices that you aren't prepared to witness or endure."

"Then I have to cope the best I can. I can't just close up and run away! It took me 16 Angels to learn that!"

"Area 51 is made to endure a nuclear attack, but what if something worse happens?"

"Worse?"

"Perhaps, if an Eva Core were to overload, especially one as powerful as Unit-01…"

"WHAT!?"

"Dr. Ikari, we can't afford to destroy Unit-01-"

"Of course you can; Adam's Children have been exterminated, so what else do you need me for-"

"WE NEED YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE STILL IN HERE! As long as you have to stay in the Core, we aren't doing anything to Unit-01, Mom!"

"If it's the only way to get you inside-"

"We'll think of something else!"

"Shinji, my Shinji. I wish I could've been there to actually be your mother. I wish I could've been there to watch you grow up. And I wish I could be there to attend your wedding."

"Wedding!? What wedding?!"

"The one that you constantly imagine in your head, the one starring the young woman sitting on your lap-"

Shinji blushed in embarrassment, in the middle of the crisis they were trying to overcome. "This isn't the time to talk about stuff like that!"

"Every man has to eventually leave the nest, Shinji."

"But not _now_!"

"_For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be bound to his wife, and the two will become one flesh._"

"That Bible verse sure worked great for you and Gendo, didn't it?"

"No, Shinji, we failed. I pray that you and Rei have a growing, joyous life together. This is my gift to you. Get in there and bring SEELE down."

Rei's eyes opened as large as saucers. "Mode 'D' Engaged!? Pilot override! Cancel Self-Destruct!

…What do you mean 'Root Authorization'!?"

"_I'm_ the one with control over the Eva, Rei."

"Dr. Ikari, please do not do this-"

"It's Yui, Rei, and you two need to win today."

"Not if _this_ is the cost."

"I'm a woman who abandoned her child, Rei. I don't deserve to live anymore."

A countdown timer started. Unit-01's back panel opened, and the entry plug ascended to an escape position.

The escape rockets fired, and Shinji and Rei were crushed by G Forces as they climbed into the sky. Below them, the reaction of the divine Core inside Unit-01 blotted out the Sun in the sky as the explosion created a blast of light and heat stronger than any nuclear weapon.

* * *

Tokyo-3...

"We just lost contact with Unit-01!"

"WHAT!?"

"Geolocation signal failure! Hold on, I'm rerouting the tracking program directly to Shinji and Rei…Getting some interference from, well, looks like they're still in the entry plug…wait, rapid climb, now descending…They just ejected! Plug is airborne, repeat, plug is airborne!"

"Makoto, you get me a situation report right this instant!"

"I'm sorry Colonel Katsuragi, but your guess is as good as mine!"

* * *

The escape chute deployed high in the atmosphere after the explosion halted. The plug gently parachuted down to the now-cooling glass and slag surface of the Nevada desert. The artificial hillside had been melted away, leaving the mottled and deformed mouth of the underground tunnel exposed and open.

The plug opened, and Shinji and Rei looked out to the wasteland around them. Where there was previously a covert military installation, there was now a scarred burn across the land.

"Unit-01…Unit-01 did this?"

"My mom, she-...she killed herself!"

"Shinji, look at me, you have to keep it together for now, we can talk later, just you and me, but right now we need to keep our focus on our target-"

"What's the point!? I already lost! You won't ever have to know what it feels like to watch your mother kill herself right before your eyes!"

"That is a _very_ good impression of Asuka, Shinji."

"I don't care how selfish I sound, Rei! None of this is worth it! She-"

"She just gave us what we need to end all of this, Shinji!" Rei shouted in his face. "Asuka, Mari, and Nagisa have already completed their task, so we have no excuse!"

"No, Rei. I'm finished. I'm tired of it all, I'm tired of aliens, Angels, evil shadow leaders, I'm tired of NERV and Evas, I just want to-" * SLAP *

He didn't notice her attempt to hit him, this time. "Are you tired of me?"

"What!?"

"I'm the conclusion of NERV and SEELE's work, Shinji. Me and Kaworu. Would it have been better if NERV hadn't created me? If the events that lead to my birth never occurred?"

"If that happened, Rei, then I would never know about you. We'd never meet, and I'd be happy in my ignorance! My mom would still be here, and I wouldn't spend 7 years away from her!"

"So I'm not worth the adversity, Shinji? I'm happy to be here, to be alive under my own choices-"

"THIS" Shinji waved out through the capsule door to the crater around them. "Was never supposed to happen!"

"But it did, Shinji, and we don't have the power to change that. What we _do_ have the power to do is deliver great violence to those who would do us harm. Now come with me, the surface should be cool and solid enough to walk on by now."

"Rei, I'm sorry, I-…I don't have the strength-"

"I'm not going to let you sit in this capsule and sulk, Shinji. I'll pick you up and carry you into the tunnel if I have to. Remember that I'm strong enough to do so."

Rei climbed out of the capsule and turned to look at him. He slowly followed her. She opened the survival supply cabinet on the side of the entry plug and extracted their weapons.

"Wait, you brought this thing along?" She handed Shinji the sword from Detroit. He slung it across his back.

"I figured we'd need something sharp to stab with, so…"

She collected the implements they had left over from China. Several incendiary grenades, non-lethal nerve gas canisters, and some emergency medical supplies were present.

They began to cross the empty destruction and head for the tunnel down. The blast breached the door and left a trail of destruction through the entry and early first level of the facility. Low-security offices and personnel rooms were blanketed with ash and soot, and anybody alive had been cooked to a crisp. Shinji and Rei stepped over the burnt corpses of Area-51 personnel as they ventured.

"This shouldn't have happened to them!"

"You're right, Shinji, but it did happen, and there's no use pretending otherwise.

They made it to another sealed vault door. It was shut tight and locked down, the Children seeing no way to pass it.

"I…I don't believe it, my mom blows everything up and only manages to get us even more stuck! What a waste-"

Alarm sirens behind the door sounded, and the door lifted up to the ceiling. Rei raised her FR-27 as the corridor opened. "It looks like someone decided to welcome us in."

Shinji stared at the unnaturally convenient coincident. "I've got a bad feeling about this…"

* * *

Gary and his colleagues had dispersed amongst the research labs throughout the facilities. They all gathered samples of volatile chemicals and ignored laboratory protocol as they mixed their samples in lethal concentrations of reactive acids and bases, to produce violent reactions under the guise of industrial disaster.

"Mister Savage." The inhumanly grey tower of a man approached Gary, dressed in a hazardous materials suit as he handled a flask of hydrofluoric acid. "These levels are locked down. You must close this laboratory and proceed downstairs to a security shelter."

Gary smirked behind his vapor mask. "Why, isn't Unit-04 supposed to be landing or something?"

"It's not Unit-04."

"Oh, then NERV must've decided to hit us back. Tell me, how does this stuff taste?" Gary dumped the highly corrosive acid on to the Man in Black. The enhanced assassin's painkiller treatments ensured he didn't scream in pain, but they could both still watch as the extensive chemical coverage dissolved his skin and muscle. No longer able to stand, the MIB fell to the ground, the chemical explosives inside of him detonating, sending bits of man all around the lab.

Gary picked up an office phone. "Alright everybody, light some fires."

* * *

Shinji and Rei walked through the open doors into a long corridor. Several locked rooms lined the halls.

'Entertainment Complex and Dormitories.' Shinji read on a hallway sign. "Rei?"

She nodded and walked to a keypad beside the entrance to the room. Her fingers danced over the keys as she entered wave after wave of incorrect codes, her architecture offering her hundreds of password guesses to attempt on the lock… "We're in."

Shinji guarded the door as Rei opened it and entered. A dead body, ashen gray and wearing a labcoat laid across a pool table. The rest of the room was empty, dining tables had been rapidly abandoned, a microwave oven was still running as a nearby television showed Picus' News channel.

"Cardswipe access to 'Level 2' facilities." Rei mumbled as she read the identification card on the body's coat. They continued searching this wing. The area was subdivided into sleeping pods, all abandoned.

Rei examined the body more closely. "This scientist died from chlorine gas, an extensive amount. This room was poisoned."

"Then I'm guessing that the doors opened as an emergency exit, right?"

"Yes, that also explains the lack of security. The guards will have retreated as well."

They continued down the corridor, opening into a shipping loading bay. Cargo elevators and an automated train system ran through points of the area, all capable of handling enormous loads of equipment. Another sealed airlock door separated the rest of the facility. "Level 2 access it is, then." Rei said as she ran the card and entered the elevator that would take them deeper down into the base.

The several-story trip landed the teens in a new area-

'Level 2 Research and Reactor complex' "Rei…why would they have a reactor?"

"Simple. In case the overhead power grid goes down, Shinji. This facility is self-sufficient."

This area was (not) undefended, a fact Shinji and Rei quickly learned as bullets riddled the floor where they stood.

"Security 2 O'Clock High! It's those steroid guys like in France!" Shinji shouted as he and Rei dove for cover.

Page's security personnel began to pursue. Rei wasted no time locking on to one of them, then sending a burst of rifle fire into his head.

"Guided rifle rounds. I wish we'd had Eva-sized versions of these."

Shinji noticed that some of the personnel were unremarkable human beings, wearing armor and helmets, but they did not have the extensive physiopharmaceutical augmentation that the Men in Black did. = This'll be too easy! =

He stood up from his cover, zoomed his vision on a soldier with a sniper rifle and face shield. Shinji fired his Zenith handgun, puncturing the helmet and putting a hole between his eyes. He ran up a flight of stairs to where a Man in Black was posted on his security patrol. He ensured that more of his bioelectric power was dedicated to his muscle augmentations, and proceeded to wrestle the superhuman assassin off the high catwalk. The victim's suicide bomb triggered when he fell from the great height. There would be no chance of a second round.

Rei was forced to retreat when her position was choked by fire. A security robot drove in and located the intruder. She primed one black-market electromagnetic grenade, and the sphere of lightning she sent in the robot's direction burned down its delicate electronic controls.

She met Shinji up on the catwalk, and she led him along the signs out to the reactor complex.

"What are we looking for, Rei?"

"Science personnel. Hopefully they will be unarmed and cooperative, as I feel interrogating another soldier we encounter would prove fruitless. But, _somebody_ will have to be at the power system, as oversight of something like that is mandatory."

Their entry into the reactor complex was a thing of nightmares. The volume of fissile nuclear material at hand made mutation experiments accessible to the scientists at Page Industries, and they took NERV Branch 2's genetics facilities and repurposed them into the creation of mutated creatures. 'Transgenics' was the label on the sign overlooking the animal pens. A pen held several green, feathered reptiles, fighting over the corpse of a cat. Shinji and Rei looked in disbelief as the unnatural birds fought by spitting venom at one another. The gene splicers that created them took characteristics from chickens, crocodiles, and the spitting cobra to create the Greasel, and the teens were disgusted by the creatures.

"Should we kill them?"

"No, just leave them in their pens, Shinji. Save your bullets for Page Industries."

Shinji called out amongst the deserted offices. "Anybody still here? Stand down, you won't be shot at."

A voice answered them. "Where is God?"

"What?"

"Where is God?"

Rei shook her head at Shinji for missing the simple puzzle. "In his Heaven, and all's right with the world. You work for NERV."

A scientist crept out from inside an office. "Yes, my team was originally assigned to facilitate muscle and organ growth for Unit-04. Page Industries made us create _those_ things."

"Genetic engineering experts forced into slavery to create mutated predators. Any motive from Page?"

"I don't know. If Page is trying to build a synthetic army, these filthy pests aren't the weapon of choice. Greasels only exist to be shot."

"Can you get us to Page?"

"Oh, right. Gary left me with the access to Level 3. He and his research team are down there right now."

"'Gary'?"

"Gary Savage. Technically still a kid working on his PHD, but he's brilliant. He specializes in applied physics, and NERV snapped him up. He's been Page's most vocal critic. Actually, he has a request: If we help you, can you two get us out of here?"

"…Our transportation suffered a breakdown. We'll get an extraction, but we can't make promises. After we finish Page, we'll all make our way to –what's left- of the surface."

The scientist directed them to the Level 3 facilities. An elevator down dropped the two off at what Rei identified as an LCL production plant. Their entry into the facility was greeted by four LCL tubes, floor to ceiling. Shinji and Rei recognized them all too well.

"Cloning tubes for Dummy Plug Programming."

"Kaworu said he was created on the Moon, or something-"

"But SEELE and NERV would both have backup facilities…No matter what we do, we can't escape SEELE or Gendo's malevolence…"

Shinji glared into Rei's melancholy expression. "No, Rei. What happened to you…and Kaworu for that matter, is nothing. The dummy plugs aren't you, and they weren't Kaworu…They aren't people, just _things_, created by evil men, and beaten by the good guys."

"But the only time NERV has truly struggled was when they faced a dummy plug-controlled Eva. Unit-03, the MP Evas, the resurrected Unit-04..."

"And if you won't let me sulk about my mom, I'm not letting you act depressed about anything my bastard dad used you for. These facilities exist, but that's not why we're here. We're going all the way to the top…Wait. When I think about it, we really should be getting shot at, by now."

"That's because we caused an industrial accident at the security station at this level." An intercom sounded out.

"Are you Gary?" Shinji shouted.

"Yes I am. You're the First and Third Children, right?"

"I wish we weren't, because then none of this crap would be happening to us!"

"I agree, but this is really all I can do to help you, exit this cloning lab and then…you two are augmented, right?"

"So the news gets around, then."

"Yeah, anyways, you're gonna need your environmental protection because this security office is separated from the LCL tanks by another radiation research lab, and the place was looted for hazmat gear after the explosions started. Sorry for that, but we needed to cause enough chaos to get security dealt with beforehand."

"So you're telling us to wade through an apparently irradiated chamber relying only on our bio-energy!?"

"The scenario isn't convenient, you're right, but we normal folks had to make do with the equipment that was available at the time. Go through the blast door behind two of the LCL tanks, then open the airlock and run through the chamber."

Shinji and Rei followed the instructions, looking at two of the empty tanks and wondering what they'd been used for, since neither she nor Kaworu had spent any time here. They entered the final decontamination chamber, where Rei opened the hazard door and they were exposed to the Gamma-heavy room, which consisted of floor-to-ceiling columns shaped from Cobalt-60. Geiger Counting applications in Shinji and Rei's interface screamed with interference as soon as the blast door opened, and the teens took off running towards the opposite end of the room.

The panel at the other side was already unlocked, left over by Savage and his colleagues, so the two made a hasty exit, to undergo a cleaning routine at the opposite decontamination chamber. This led them to the security checkpoint where several individuals, in full-body suits waited for them.

"You two made it. Hopefully your augmentations will process the radiation before any negative effects manifest."

"'HOPEFULLY'!?"

"It's just an expression, Shinji." Gary said to the panicked teen. Gary Savage was a postgraduate-aged young man with glasses, buzzed red hair, and a goatee. He'd been with NERV ever since he published his impressive Masters' Thesis at MIT, and embodied the idea that he was fighting to save the world. "I'll give you access to the Level 4 command bunkers. These areas are one of many types of facility that allows continuity of government and military command in the case of nuclear war…Page took up residence there shortly after being given administration of the facility."

"Well, there's going to be an opening for position of CEO very soon. You all return to the surface and pick up your friend at the radiation lab. We'll be along to get us flown out after we deal with wannabe-God down there."

"Just as a warning, Page probably has quite a few of his ash-gray bodyguards down there, so…"

"We figured as much. Let's go."

* * *

There was no cover inside the elevator to the lowest level, deep under the Nevada desert. Shinji and Rei dove for the deck and Rei threw out a nerve gas grenade when the door opened to a team of security expecting them. They dispersed and moved to still air, giving the two time to return to their feet and take fighting stances. Rei took her final vial of Zyme and streaked across the cluster of men, swiftly striking and stabbing with her knife before they could react to her. Despite the bloodstains on the floor, the men did not fall, their conditioning driving them to endure the injury. Shinji threw an incendiary grenade into the fray, the explosions clouding the air with burning phosphorus particles that embedded themselves into the Men's flesh. Explosions from within the chests of the Men in Black ensured that there would be no trace of their presence, there.

They continued on until they came to areas with computer arrays, board and meeting rooms, and secure apartment suites with all the amenities that a flag-rank general or President might expect during his sabbatical in a time of war.

"If converted into a company boardroom, this is likely where we would find the CEO." Rei stated as they searched.

"More accurately," a voice interrupted, "where he would find you." Bob Page approached them as they walked down the halls. "Consider me impressed, you two are quite the heartless killing machines."

"We only do what is required for our safety, and for the defense of peace." Rei said to him, she raised her rifle. "And that will include killing you unless you surrender and come in to custody."

"I like your offer, but no." He said. The Illuminatus drew a sword from his belt and ignited it, blue lightning streaking down the blade. Rei fired, her bullets evaporating against the flat of the blade as Page held it out in front of him. "The finest nanotechnology, housed inside the sword. Technically a prototype, but it functions admirably in this test deployment.

He struck as Shinji drew the Chinese sword on his back; the boy's weapon disrupted the strike, pushing it back to a range that wouldn't kill Rei, instead leaving a smooth, clean cut across her waist. She gasped in pain and fell to the floor, though the cut quickly closed as her body responded to the attack. She weakly fumbled with the LIMB pain hypostim she carried until she was able to inject it into the site of the wound, the drug and coagulant accelerating the already rapid nanite medical support.

Shinji snapped at the sight of his lover's injury, and leaped into the fight, stabbing like lightning at the man before him. The Illuminatus proved to be just as capable, easily dodging Shinji's berserk attacks, until at last, Shinji reached too far with one strike and threw himself off balance, allowing a large gash to be cut in his arm. Shinji dropped the broken sword and collapsed to his knees.

Page looked over the injured girl and clumsy boy.

"You have the benefit of years of training in a military organization. You have the benefit of incredible nanotechnology from the greatest American scientific minds. And yet, you fell to a human man with a glowing sword. _This_ is why WE are destined to rule over you and your world, because with everything except the power of God, you still failed. How foolish, sending Children to pursue your enemies."

Shinji's eyes narrowed. The bleeding had ceased in his arm, and he felt for the Zyme vial he carried with him. "Yes. It is foolish. Foolish enough that I don't know when to quit!" He drank the accelerating drug, leaped over Page, and stabbed the jagged remains of the sword into his back. He rushed over to Rei, who was weakly getting to her feet. "Easy, you took it much worse than I did."

"Yes, but I'm just as capable of healing quickly, Shinji. Don't worry." She looked at the corpse. "Impressive retaliation."

"That's what it took, Rei…Is this the end?"

"NERV will have to investigate and find out. Perhaps it is. We'll never get a signal down here, let's go back topside."

* * *

Inside one of the secure suites, a conversation was proceeding.

"The best kind of victory is the one where the enemy believes that they succeeded."

"This is a victory, Page? Your double has been killed, your facility destroyed-"

"All of it was worth retrieving a necessary ingredient."

The real Bob Page stepped out of the room. He stood over his double's corpse. "Much like that little girl, you were created to die. Well done." He swabbed two samples from the teen's spilled blood and returned to the videoconference.

"Blood for safekeeping, Dragon Queen."

* * *

Shinji, Rei, and Gary Savage's research staff stood around the destruction just outside the entrance to the surface tunnel. They'd been waiting in the Nevada dusk for a few hours by the time a NERV and Sarif VTOL landed at the property, tracking Shinji and Rei global position signal.

"Inspector Kaji, Mr. Sarif?" They said as the two men exited the passenger compartments of their organization's vehicles.

"Kaji flew out just after the two of you took off. We're going back to Detroit to give you kids some time off, and to debrief your refugees here. Congratulations, by the way. SEELE's been conspiring for years after the Second Impact disaster, and you two took them apart in the space of a few weeks. I'd say you've earned some vacation after all that. Look on the bright side, this location is deep cover classified. By the US Government's standpoint, absolutely nothing happened here today."

Shinji and Rei didn't know how to react. Was it really all over?


	18. Closure

Answers: iyaoyas: Fix'd! Frankly, I should've noticed that. I am ashamed.  
Sentinel and Nexus: I PMed you both. A lot.

* * *

Chapter 18: Closure

* * *

Mari stood outside Asuka's dormitory door at Branch 3. "If you don't let me in, I'm going to have you dragged out by the doctors for a psych evaluation! Asuka, you need to talk to SOMEBODY!"

A muffled shout came through the door. "I'm not talking to a selfish bitch like you!"

Mari stood for a moment, crossed her arms, and placed a finger on her chin. "Okay, fine. I agree that I'm a bitch, but I'm _selfish_ now? Next time I go and throw myself off a building, I'll make sure I do it for _your_ glory, you idiot!"

"You MURDERED-"

"I disabled a robot, Asuka. I ACQUIRED a WEAPON that could kill that maniac god-wannabe! Wait…you know what, you're right: I don't give the slightest of a damn about your feelings! I beat the bad guy! The whole reason we're out here! Dead! By me!"

"And I'm going to spend the rest of my life making you WISH you were dead, you Fucking English Bastard!"

"Why, because I killed your already dead mommy?"

The door burst open, and Mari was pinned against the barracks hallway, Asuka's arm crushing her throat.

"Damn, Princess …" she choked, "if you're…into * WHEEZE * …choking games…like that * GASP *…At least buy me dinner first!"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!? Can you not carry on a single serious conversation!? I'm gonna kill you, right here!"

"Did…you know that…the human body * COUGH *…basically gives itself…*GASP * an orgasm before it dies? It releases…adrenaline, dopamine…and a truckload of other * BREATHE *…energy hormones in a last grasp at life!"

"What's your point, bitch!?"

"My point? Make sure…you get me off…_real good_ before I die! Want me…to tell you…all my favorite rub spots?!"

Asuka dropped her hands and stared in horror. "That's disgusting! I'm not a lesbian! You're fucked up! You're-"

Asuka was floored by Mari's flawlessly executed right cross. "Now that you're looking up to me, Asuka, maybe we can establish some things. I don't ever expect you to forgive me, but I'm sorry I killed your mother. You, however, need to understand that she entered Unit-02 so that you WOULDN'T be the one getting killed! She made that choice when she died for you the first time!"

Asuka was dumbfounded. The woman looming over her had just faked her out of her own torture session, and was now trying to show reason? What? "Shut up! That is NO excuse to kill her! Unit-02 is being dismantled and dissected below our feet because YOU turned it into dead meat!"

"Oh, get over it. Unit-02 is a weapon, Asuka. A vehicle, a gun, a cudgel."

"My mom was inside! I was talking to her as you killed her! She died mid-sentence!"

"And she was in there due to her own choice! Until you realize that, the pain won't heal."

"That wasn't supposed to be what happened! She was supposed to be safe inside there!"

"Yeah, well, she wasn't. Look, Asuka, I don't pretend to know the first thing about S2 theory, just that a living Core is more powerful than the old style ones that need the power cord. Keel was using a live one, and that's what killed your mom!"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better? No, you're just getting yourself off the hook!"

"Okay, fine. Don't feel better, you can keep smoldering and hating for the rest of your life. You know what, Asuka? I like everybody. I don't know why, I just always have. At the lame orphanage I grew up in, when I was training for Unit-05 in Russia, and when Ryouji brought me to Japan, all I wanted to do was become friends with everybody. I even like you, because you're brave, and smart, and you're always ready to jump into a fight! But you have so little control of your feelings that you remind me of a four year old! Years of training, Asuka! Martial arts teach you self-control long before you learn to fight! Command school teaches you restraint because reactive thinking gets people killed! Have you not learned any of it, or did losing your mom really fuck your head up that badly?"

"You! You…leave me alone."

"Why? So you can sulk and stew?"

"What am I supposed to do!?"

"Talk to people! Learn that it's okay to be hurt, and that hiding your pain only makes _you_ suffer! I'm feeling great! I just spent a few hours holding hands with Kaworu as he got his ribcage set and his forehead stitched up. Of the three of us, he got hurt the worst when Keel took Unit-02 down. He's arguably the most dangerous person here, but I went after Lorenz so he wouldn't have to!"

"Yes, you're _so_ selfless."

"I'm a trained soldier, Asuka, just like you. That means we willingly take the difficult route, no matter the sacrifice. Your mom understood that! For me, it meant getting my ass kicked in Kaworu's place. For you, it means accepting the fact that your mom knew she was already dead when she entered Unit-02."

"And you expect me to do that!?"

"I don't even actually remember my parents. Shinji's dad is a despicable bastard. Touji had to accept the loss of his mother in a much _sicker_ fashion than you do. Rei has the most tragic life story I've ever heard. She's supposed to be the enemy, remember? Instead, she's one of my best friends. So yes, Asuka, I do expect you to do that."

"I…I need some time…" Asuka suddenly felt very…small.

"Okay, Princess. I'll call you when Angel Boy and I get back to Japan."

* * *

Detroit, Michigan.

"You're WHAT!? Save the crazy news for when we're not lightheaded from a biochip firmware update!"

The long flight north did not leave a certain pair ready for the news they'd just received. In Sarif Industries' global headquarters, Shinji, Rei, and Kaji stood dumbfounded at hearing the English doctor's words. After all, Shinij and Rei owed their survival to the crippled man.

"Face it, you three, I'm old. I've been planning my retirement for a long time, and I need to devote all my resources to the Panchaea project."

"'Panchaea'?" Shinji asked as Dr. Darrow rolled out a large blueprint diagram.

"You've visited the Ecological Water Reclamation Facility in Tokyo-3's harbor, haven't you?"

"Uhh, yeah, we have…?"

"Panchaea is going to be a network of similar facilities, with the purpose of restoring the underwater environment by modifying ocean currents through a combination of iron seeding and geothermal management."

"But…who's going to manage the augmentation projects…I mean, David's the CEO, not a scientist, isn't he-"

"That's why he's bringing in a specialist." A young brunette woman, dressed in an ornate, almost Victorian labcoat entered Darrow's office complex. "Dr. Megan Reed. You two are the prototype subjects, right?"

"Shinji and I prefer the term 'Precision Living Weapon', thank you."

"They've certainly earned that title." Darrow commented.

Megan wasn't impressed. "And I'm supposed to like the idea of teenage killers?"

"Us 'killers' are the ones responsible for humanity's recovery after the Second Impact." Shinji countered. "Rei and I changed the world, same as Sarif Industries plans to."

"There's a difference between kicking down doors and shooting people, and ushering in the next step of human evolution."

Rei took her turn. "Professional assassination is the highest form of public service."

Megan was dumbfounded. She, an idealistic pursuer of knowledge, found herself verbally sparring with two fifteen-year-old soldiers! "…Has NERV really perverted your minds that much?"

"NERV hasn't, but the evil men we've eliminated _have_."

"Well, I guess that makes it okay, then. As long as it's a bad guy, just run him through with a dagger, right?"

"If necessary."

"Ugh…Well, talking to you two has been eye opening. But, the reason David sent me down here to introduce myself is to tell you that we're shutting down the nanite production line."

"Shutting it down!?"

"Although the prototype nanite augmentations have been a resounding success –based on the after-action reports that've been compiled on you two- it's just not cost effective yet. Until we get a pilot production line on a prototype Universal Constructor, we don't really have any motivation to continue brewing nanite serum."

"Makes sense," Kaji's inner economist agreed, "still, being able to get powered up from just a shot at the doctor's office would put you guys on the map."

"We know, which is why the nanite research is Sarif's chief industrial secret."

"So," Shinj asked, "If you're not doing any work on people like us, then what are you-"

Megan cut him off. "I'm working on something big, Shinji. Kepler big. Rosetta Stone big. With new genetic alterations that I'm hoping to isolate and implement, we can build mechanical augmentations for the masses! No need for neuropazyne or any other rejection drug! We'll be able to reduce the prices for our components, standardize them, and distribute them to hospitals everywhere! David's talked about it for years."

"Yeah. He is a talker…"

Darrow took back the center of attention. "And, Mr. Savage…"

The young scientist looked up from his seat in a waiting room chair.

"The reason that I had David pick you and your colleagues up is because I need a special team for a project in each of the Panchaea installations.

"What's that?"

"An organic quantum computer, the Hyron Core. It's going to use human thought to regulate the terraforming programs."

_That_ was an offer he couldn't refuse. "Well…seeing as how we're all currently out of work…"

"Excellent. I'll have you brought on board immediately."

Gary turned to the Children. "Thanks, you two. After getting us out from under Page's thumb, looks like things are turning up."

"Waitaminute." Kaji said. "You brought us back here just to give the Area 51 refugees a job?"

"Shrewd, wasn't it?" Darrow answered. "But, it's no lie that I need a capable science team."

Shinji's hand over his face obscured his eyes. "Just once," Shinji said, "I don't want to be everybody's errand boy."

"You made that decision when you refused to let me get killed during the Fourth Angel's attack, Shinji." Rei said, needling him.

"And now you bring _that_ debacle up."

* * *

Somewhere in the ruins of Area 51…

Underneath the smoldering crater of the surface, and below the bullet-riddled halls of Branch 2, Bob focused the compound microscope in his personal laboratory and increased the intensity of the illumination underneath the wet slide. The drop of blood, magnified 1000 times, showed the population of red and white blood cells and platelets within. Still, he couldn't identify the nanoscale electronics he was looking for.

= I'll need a scanning electron microscope to get a good look at their architecture. Hopefully, Zhao's company can accommodate me. I know she'd be more than happy to get a good look at Sarif's handiwork. =

He made a phone call. "Yes, I've got vials on ice, but I can't get good visuals of the electronics…Of course they shot up our miniaturization lab, and they busted the scientists out, as well…Yes, populations of the materials are in the blood samples, they're simply beyond the accepted parameters of the functional equipment that I have…No, Sarif hasn't commissioned any further operators, I'm assuming they're having problems with transistor yields…If we can get a functional UC before they do, we can activate nanite operatives loyal to our cause…No doubt that's what Sarif's new goal is; why on earth would he want to drag his feet with mechanical augmentation? Yes. There will be production problems, but that's what your people will figure out…No, I'm bringing the samples myself, I'm not letting them out of my sight."

* * *

In the CEO's office…

That enormous television was tuned into yet another Tigers game, and David was in the midst of chewing out his GM over the phone when the trio entered. He grinned and slammed the phone on the cradle. "If he doesn't get this record cleaned up, he's going to have an office to clean out at the end of the season. So, what'd you all think of Megan?"

"She's certainly a prodigy, but she's not quite realistic enough, compared to the things we've seen."

"Tell me how you really feel, Rei. 'Realistic' is code for 'jaded', right?"

"The record never had me saying _that_."

"Meg's idealism is one of the reasons I want her here. We've got a vision to work towards, not just profits, and to do that you have to be able to shape people. Now, you two tell me: Either you can keep the nanites –which means leaving all the tracking software installed, or we can disable them and you two can go back to living a normal life."

Rei turned to look at Shinji.

"Uhh, well, Rei and I have _never_ had a normal life, before…but we're (not) leaving NERV anytime soon…and I kind of like being superman."

"Alright then, Orwellian surveillance it is! Other than that, your bird is fueled, and if you want to stay, well, you are my guests…"

"Even though we're now international 'Jet-Setters'," Rei attempted to use slang, "we're still _very_ Japanese, and I'm ready to return home."

...Shinji couldn't believe it. His mom was right! "The Angels are gone, and we've broken SEELE up…It's over. Let's go home."

* * *

24 Hours later, Tokyo-3.

Shinji and Rei walked into Shinji's room in the apartment. They'd heard that Misato was underground watching the ruined earth being excavated and flattened to build a new foundation for a replacement pyramid, so they would see her later. Right now, they had the apartment to themselves.

Rei turned to Shinji as they looked about the room. His cello stood in its dignified stance in a corner of the room. Shinji's clothes dresser stood as his worn-out SDAT's final resting place, and a picture of Rei stood in a frame beside one Misato and Kaji's engagement pictures. Unlike her sad and dull identity card picture, this edition of Rei's portrait was alive and full of joy. Shinji took Rei's hand as he looked at her.

"Shinji, we're home."

"Yeah. Welcome hom-"

He would have liked to finish that silly statement, but she dragged him down to the bed, and his shirt was off before he could gasp for breath.

"Oh * KISS * come on, Rei! Could you * SMOOCH * at least _try_ to be subtle!?"

She climbed on top of him; he trembled under her hungry expression. "No."

"Whoa, Rei, Rei! Where…WHERE did you LEARN _that?_"

"From one of my anatomy textbooks."

* * *

Misato walked into her apartment, removed her jacket and shoes, placed her car keys away, and got herself a beer. "Those two kids didn't even have the decency to call and tell me they were flying home! I'm gonna give them a piece of my mind, augmented powers or none! Wait, are they even here?" She stood still and held her breath, and heard nothing. She tiptoed through the bathroom and Rei's bedroom…nothing.

She leaned against Shinji's door, still not a sound. "Maybe they're at the mall or something…Wait, Rei doesn't shop..."

Against her better wisdom, she pulled the door open, and immediately chugged her beer. "Please, PLEASE tell me you two are wearing _something_ under those blankets!"

"I'm wearing a bra, Colonel Katsuragi."

Misato groaned. "How were you two able to be completely silent?"

Rei snuggled into Shinji's chest. "We found each other's peak about an hour ago. We've been resting together since then."

"I'm…I'm getting much too old for this."

"Inspector Kaji doesn't seem to be concerned by your age."

"Rei…can you, for once…not be _you_?"

"Actually, I do it on purpose."

Misato rubbed her forehead. "Just to irritate me. Lucky me…Look, it's nice to see that my two misguided children are home, but the fall college semester starts in less than two weeks, you need to prepare-"

"No worries, Misato. I've already downloaded the electronic versions of my course materials to my neural interface." Rei smirked.

"You're purposely trying to give me heartburn."

"Shinji?" She turned to look up at his eyes.

"Yes, Rei?"

"We have more than seven days until I need to report for classes."

"Right."

"Should we spend a week together in the bedroom?"

"Ohh nooo! You did (not) just go there!" Misato's veins bulged on her forehead.

"Kaji would approve." Shinji reminded her.

"Grr…Ugh…you!" Misato stormed off, slamming the door behind her and grumbling something about how she wasn't sure whether she was going to kill herself of Shinji first…

They looked at the shut door for a minute or two...

"Rei?"

"Yes, Shinji?"

"I love you."

* * *

Their long flight home was over, as well. They arrived at their new dormitory, where she helped him in and made him rest. He felt pretty good actually, considering the stitches in his head and the bindings on his chest. Of course, the young woman acting as his personal nurse and was waiting on him like Caesar helped.

"Mari, I'm fine. Really."

"Are you sure? You need anyth-"

"All I need is time. Time for my ribcage to harden up and for the stitches to dissolve."

"At least let me cook you something-"

"No. I'm not just going to let people run around and pamper me when there are more important things happening."

"More important than what? We won!"

"You expect it to be that easy."

"YOU THOUGHT ALL THIS WAS EASY!? You got it the worst of all of us!"

"And?"

"What do you mean, 'And'? Doesn't that resonate with you, like, at all?"

"Not particularly."

"But you…you know, poison, and China! And there was-"

"Mari, I'm alive, with moderate injuries that have been treated." He stood from the reclining chair in the room. "NERV's recovery is much more important than mine."

"Not to me! NERV can make sure NERV recovers, I'm looking after you!"

"And you're doing a fine job, but it's unnecessary."

"Unnecessary!? You can't just heal like you used to be able to!"

"So?"

"'So'? Kaworu, I ought to-"

"What? Get angry at me because you're worried?"

"Yes! I have the right to worry about you!"

"Worry about me if I were bedridden or on a surgical waiting list, Mari. Otherwise, trust the treatment I've already received."

Mari panted from all her shouting. "…Fine, Kaworu. I'm sorry I care about you so much-"

"I care for you as well, Mari, but don't focus your attention on me. Care about the world, care about humanity. Remember the perspective you need."

"The synthetic vessel of an alien soul is telling me about humanity."

"Sometimes it takes an outsider to see within."

"Okay, Angel Boy…give me a minute to talk to somebody."

* * *

Berlin, Germany.

Asuka hadn't left her room since that little conversation. She's spent the last day curled up in bed, depressedly thinking about what Mari said, and hoping that phone call would come...

_THERE'S NO ONE LIKE YOU-_

"Uhh, hello?"

"Hey Princess, how ya doin?"

"Mari…Hi…umm…"

"Oh, come on, whether you want it or not, I'm your friend."

"I know, it's just…what you said…"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"Any time, princess. You know, I became an Eva pilot because I wanted to fight robots, not because I had anything to prove. And you don't need to prove anything, either, Asuka."

"I know, it's just hard to shake the feeling-"

"That you're not good enough? Shouldn't the dead Angels give you the answer to that?"

"I guess…I don't know…"

"Then quit caring about it, just live. Preferably without a chip on your shoulder."

"You're crazy, you do realize that."

"Of course I do! That's the point! Stop taking life seriously!"

"Look...Explain something to me."

"Yeah?"

"How do you, Fifth, Shinji and Rei get to go home and be happy, while-"

"You know, you could've been happy from the start."

"How could I have done that!?"

"What'd you do when you first met Shinji? Oh, _right_, you assaulted him! And then started insulting him because he'd threatened your status as top pilot. On the other hand, you two could've been best friends if you would've just accepted the fact that he was there! You didn't even have to like him, which everybody, including Shinji, knows you do by the way. Just be social to him. You wouldn't even let _him_ treat _you_ well! Rei didn't like him at first, but she accepted the fact that he wanted to be nice to her, and look at what happened! The easiest option was to do _nothing_, but you _actively_ drove him away...It was the effort he made, I made, and Watergirl made that's the reason we're friends with _you_ now."

Asuka stared into the phone, dumbfounded.

"...You still awake, Princess?"

"…Thanks, Mari...I guess I needed to hear that." = She's right…If it's all done, I may never even see them again... = She put the phone away, that epiphany hanging over her like a storm cloud.

* * *

Kaworu was adjusting his bindings in his bedroom when the lights to the dormitory shut off. His dark vision ruined, he felt around to test the light switch when a demented voice called out in the darkness.

"Don't even try, Angel Boy! I'm gonna find out if you really _are_ built like a god!"

A brunette blur rushed up and dragged him across the room, pushing him onto the bed in the darkness.

"Oh, Kaworu! You really ARE a god! Why have you been hiding this from me all this time!"

Kaworu couldn't believe the absurdity of what was happening. "Uhh…erm…Pardon me, Mari, but you're sucking on my elbow…"

* * *

A/N: I promised iyaoyas a scene from Blazing Saddles and he gets one!

Now, since this is tying a prequel into a prequel, I have an order for all of you:  
GO PLAY HUMAN REVOLUTION!


	19. Epilogue: 2028

Epilogue: 2028

* * *

_'This is Eliza Cassan. Recovery efforts continue at Panchaea Prime, the arctic facility that was to be the centerpoint of Sir Hugh Darrow's climate and sea restoration solution. Augmented workers at the facility suffered biochip mass-malfunctions several months ago, resulting in billions in damages to the facility and hundreds of deaths._

_The World Health Organization is issuing guidelines for prevention of transmission of a new, unnamed virus. Beth DuClaire, head of the WHO, would like individuals to please remember these steps:_

_Try to avoid close contact with sick people.  
If you are sick with a flu-like illness, the WHO recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities.  
Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.  
Wash hands and face with soap and hot water or an Alcohol-based rub._

_Various agencies are stepping up involvement in suppressing the spread of the virus. As it has not been isolated, it is not known if the virus is airborne as of this report. The basic symptoms of the virus manifest as muscle and joint weakness, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing, and a washed-out, and Gray pigmentation of the skin. If undetected and untreated, the virus can result in Death of the patient._

_Statements from the US Center for Disease Control, the Pan-European Union Health System, and the Japanese Health Service are being released, preparing incident response groups for insertion into affected locations. Across our broadcast markets, representatives of the agencies are delivering instructions to their citizens._

_In Japan, the NERV counterterrorism agency is ramping up its biological warfare research laboratories. Dr. Rei Ikari, Chief Research Officer for NERV, is heading the attempt to isolate the virus as its presence materializes in Asian geographies. NERV Commander Shinji Ikari is expected to deliver the order to begin outfitting NERV personnel for field research, and will open NERV's new Tokyo-3 Headquarters as a secure facility with pathology quarantine:_

_"Every individual, at birth, earns the right to a life of opportunity, and that inalienable right will not be assaulted by an entity as woeful as the lowly microbe. As such, NERV will not hesitate to combat this new biologic threat."_

_"Compared to Ebola, Smallpox, even Malaria, treatments for these lethal ailments –however primitive they may be- are in place. This new outbreak must be investigated before it can be cured, and NERV, alongside other agencies, offers the facilities to do so. We will be proud to partner with the US CDC in Atlanta and the Federal Biomedical Agency in Moscow to begin isolation experiments in a timely manner." _

_The encouraging words of NERV Commander Ikari and NERV Pathologist Dr. Rei Ikari. Under the new Commander Ikari's oversight, NERV has been involved in international efforts to create a global 'United Nations Anti-Terrorism COalition'. Other militaries have been partnering with NERV to develop worldwide instantaneous response forces to terror threats. American UNATCO test detachments, for instance, have recently gained successes against the Rocky Mountain-based Northwest Secessionist Front, a radical organization violently opposed to increased American globalization and consolidation._

_Will the globalization of UNATCO offer the keys to peace to the United Nations? One would hope that the world never reaches the point that UNATCO would need to be brought to its fullest possible strength.  
Remember, for the latest news, always choose Live from Picus.'_

"We're going to be on the news quite a bit more often, Shinji." Rei spoke into the ear of her husband, her ball and chain for…a couple of years, now.

He shifted her in his arms; watching TV in bed isn't as comfortable as the mattress commercials made it out to be. "At least we expect it, Rei. With Misato and Ritsuko retired, it's up to us. But it'll be easy, you know; the Nagisas command the combat operations group, and Asuka's the director of Branch 3. You can focus on your pathology research exclusively, and I can...spend my days sitting in the UN chamber while the delegates argue and waste time...Can I have your job?"

"And leave me to deal with the bean counters? I love you, dear, but I don't love you _that_ much."

He cracked up at the formerly-reserved woman's _very_ dry wit. "Rei, have I told you lately how screwed up I'd be if you weren't here?"

"All the time. But," her eyes flashed red, "I'll save that little bit of audio for blackmail-...oops, did I say that out loud?"

He groaned, before laughing and hugging his wife closer. "After everything…the Angels, after learning about you, fighting Lillith...I don't know what I'd have done if my father succeeded...I don't think I could handle losing you. I would've played right into his hands and ended the world all those years ago…Then SEELE and Belltower came along and we became cyborg supersoldiers-"

"Let the past go. You're ignoring the reward, Shinji: we've had 13 years of peace. You can't ask for anything more than that. Now, we return to do good for humanity again; the virus will be researched; all pathogens can be fought."

* * *

Two scientists, deep in an underground laboratory, look into several tanks of an oxygen-rich liquid.

"Dr. Reed, what do you think of the new donations, especially considering Project Delta?"

"I need them, there's no doubt at this point, but you haven't told me where you got them."

"From two...volunteers at Branch 2."

Megan gave Page a skeptical look. "...The Patient X DNA was sufficient for the synthesis of the Secondary Unit, but the Tertiary and Quadriary required the insertion of the Sierra India and Romeo Alpha samples, respectively. 'Alpha Delta' and 'Bravo Alpha' will not be identical clones to Patient X; they'll be genetic half-siblings."

"The Tertiary and Quadriary will be reserve units. The Primary and Secondary Units are set to be commissioned first, anyway, so this should not be a critical factor. What are the birthdates?"

"'JCD', Male: March 17th, 2029.  
'AD', Male: 2047, pending.  
'BA', Female: 2048, pending."

"Not too long for the Secondary, now. When He is born, He will be our key to the City on the Hill, and we will finally guide our world to the light of the _true_ day."

* * *

_Put on a trenchcoat;  
and fight some conspiracies…_

* * *

A/N: First and foremost, thank you to all my regular readers and reviewers:  
Fleightfire has read from day 1 and responded to every chapter I've posted. He's awesome.  
iyaoyas: Some of the stuff you've written was better than the content in my chapters!  
Vent and ADS: You guys posted great stuff, I wish I could've heard from you more often!

(and...if you guys feel like thanking me...well, a TvTropes page would be pretty great)

Thanks to Anno and Gainax/Khara for making one of the best, most influential Anime series' ever created.  
Thanks to Warren Spector and Eidos/Ion Storm for making THE greatest video game series in history. Deus Ex has hundreds of 'Game of the Year' and 'Game of the Decade' awards to its name, and still receives critical acclaim fifteen years after it was released! Playing it with the New Vision and Shifter mods makes what is already a great game absolutely perfect.

So, what inspired me to send Shinji and Rei off on this fool's errand?  
The 'miniature S2 Core' concept came from NGE: Campus Apocalypse (so did 'Shinji carrying a handgun', for that matter). Campus Apocalypse needs to be read by everybody.  
Obviously, the Illuminati and government content, as well as the augmentations, came from Deus Ex and Human Revolution.  
and...Giant Robots Rule!

And lastly, this'll probably be my last Evangelion stuff for a while. I've got some other ideas I want to work on, so keep looking at my profile!

NOW GO PLAY DEUS EX!


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